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PROTEST, 



b-3<*3. 

AGAINST THE 



ACTION OF THE GENERAL SYNOD 



OF THE 



REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 



TN THE 



CASE OF THE PITTSBURGH PRESBYTERY, 



XENIA, MAY, 1 850. 



BY 



WILLIAM WILSON, A. M., 

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF THE COVENANTERS , TN THE CITY OF CINCINNATI. 



" Hearken to me; I also will show mine opinion." — Elihu. 

" He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbor cometh and searcheth 
him." — Solomon. 

" Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth?" — Nicodemus. 
"Audi alteram partem," " Hear both sides." — A Heathen 
" Rebuke them sharply, that they maybe sound."— Paul. 




CINCINNATI: 



BEN FRANKLIN PRINTING OFFICE. 
1850. 




OMITTED ON PAGE THIRTY-SECOND. 



The following is a copy of the request addressed to the Moderator, 
in the strictest accordance with which he called the meeting, embody- 
ing in his summons the two objects which it specifies as the business 
to be transacted ; which he furnished to me on the day of the meeting, 
under his own signature. It was intended to be inserted after the 
sentence ending on the third line from the bottom of page thirty-second; 
but being on a separate piece of paper from the rest of the copy, by 
an oversight of the printer, it was omitted, and the omission was not 
detected in the correction of the press, nor until after the work was 
finished. Our "eyes were holden, that we should not know" il 
sooner, in order that it might receive the greater attention, which it 
merits, by its publication in this manner. Written b} T the pen of that 
worthy servant of God, the Rev. Thomas C. Guthrte, and signed, 
together with him, by men who are worthy of standing in the same 
category, the unpretending act being honest, true, holy and living, it 
was destined, it would seem, to occupy a place in ecclesiastical history, 
of which they had no conception at the time ; and to make all whose 
names appear on its face historical men. They knew whereof they 
affirmed, and are not to be schooled, nor dragooned, nor wheedled 
out of their knowledge, convictions and principles, by "X. Y.," 
whether individually or synodically. They are men of mark, and will 
abide by and honor their own act. In this the Church will sustain 
them ; and for it both she and posterity will thank and bless them. 

"Bakerstown, June 19, 1849. 
"Rev. and Dear Sir: We the undersigned do hereby request you, as Moder- 
ator of Presbytery, to call a meeting pro re nata. as soon as possible, in order to 
receive an application from Rev. William Wilson, a Minister of the Reformed 
Presbyterian Church, for the purpose of uniting himself with our Presbytery; 
and for whatever may grow out of said application. We would also suggest 
that Pittsburgh be the place of meeting. 

Respectfully, yours, 

Thomas C. Guthrib, 
John Dickey, 
Gabriel Adams, 
George Scott." 

<e Rev. Robert McCracken, Moderator of the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the 
Reformed Presbyterian (Jhurch." 



PROTEST, 



Against the entertainment of a certain Resolution for laying on the table 
a part of the Certificate of Delegation from the Pittsburgh Presbytery, by 
the Officers of the General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, of 
1848, until a Complaint against it in relation to a matter not connected with 
its Certificate, which the mover alleged he intended to make to the General 
Synod of 1850, should be issued, whereby the Roll of the Synod of 1850 was 
mutilated, prior to its organization ; as well as against all the proper results 
of its adoption by said Officers acting in concert with Delegates to the next 
Synod, who had not yet beee organized ; and against not allowing me to 
speak upon said Resolution, although I had been unanimously commissioned 
by my Presbytery to represent it in said body. 



I William Wilson, Minister of the Gospel, and a member 
of the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the Reformed Presbyterian 
Church, do hereby most solemnly protest against being 
prevented, by the officers of the last Synod, and delegates 
to that of this year, not then organized, from speaking upon 
the resolution of Rev. A. W. Black, dishonoring the certificate 
of said Presbytery, by proposing to lay on the table that 
part of it which included the names of Rev. William Wil- 
son, Messrs. Thomas Wilson, William Taylor, and Samuel 
Mitchell ; as well as against the entertainment of the pro- 
position, for a moment, and against all its proper results ; for 
the following reasons : — 

1. The persons whose rights were thus proposed to be 
set aside, had been appointed by Presbytery with the same 
unanimity as the other delegates — no opposition having 
been made by Mr. Black at the time, to their appointment. 

2. The proposition casts as much dishonor upon the Pres- 
bytery, as if it had been made to lay the whole of its cer- 
tificate upon the table. Presbyteries may not be thus 

//crashed by Synod; but she is bound to honor them and 



4 



their acts, until they are regularly tried and found guilty 
or invalid. 

3. The complaint of Mr. Black was not against these 
Delegates, nor the act by which they were delegated, but 
against another act of Presbytery, of which the officers of 
the last Synod then regularly knew nothing : and it is un- 
lawful to allow that an act of unquestioned validity may be 
set aside, in anticipation of any decision touching another 
act that might afterwards be, in an orderly manner, called 
in question. 

4. The measure was calculated injuriously to affect the 
organization of the next Synod, to which the alleged com- 
plaint was to be made, by rejecting four votes, before it was 
effected ; as well as its subsequent, usual proceedings ; and 
to prejudge the case of complaint, which they were now in- 
formed, unofficially, should be brought before it, during its 
sessions. 

5. It was subversive of the system of delegation. 

6. It was contrary to the rules of all sound ecclesiastical 
jurisprudence, and all well-established precedents. 

7. It is at war with the position taken, and the course 
adopted, by General Synod, at the time of the unhappy 
division of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, in the United 
States, in August, 1833. It then absolutely refused to 
take the least notice of any of the results of the fro re nata 
meeting of the Eastern Subordinate Synod, of 1832, until 
they should be regularly brought before it, after its consti- 
tution, although they had been published and emblazoned 
before the world, and were then urgently pressed upon it, 
for its approval ; and when organized, it unanimously sus- 
tained said Synod in the course which it had pursued in re- 
lation to these matters, of precisely the same character, at 
its meeting in the preceding April. In this it was right. 
Here the "separation occurred. Synod has thus struck a 
deadly blow, against the regularity of its own existence. 

8. The decision of every court is to be held valid, until 
it be regularly reviewed and set aside. With this maxim 
of Presbyterianism, said proposition is directly at war. 

9. The refusal of the right of speech, and the imposition 
of an ecclesiastical gag-law, where precious rights are inva- 
ded, and attacks are made upon standing and ecclesiastical 



relationship, for the purpose of excluding necessary inform- 
ation and self-defence, from the party assailed, are at war with 
every principle of human rights, and of sound morality ; are 
only worthy of a different age and place from that in which 
God has cast our lot; are discreditable to the majority of any 
assembly, but more especially of a professed court of Christ; 
and are highly detrimental to Religion and the Church. 

10. The results, thus obtained, against our Presbytery, 
taken in connection with the other methods employed for 
securing them, after the illegal organization of this body, 
which are perfectly novel and original in the history of in- 
justice and disorder, are necessarily vanity, and destitute of 
all authority.* 

WILLIAM WILSON. 

Xenia, May 21, 1850. 

I farther enter my Protest, with like solemnity, against 
all the proper results of this flagrant disorder and high- 
handed tyranny, as they affect the complainant, or the 
Presbytery, or myself in particular, whom it was the evi- 
dent intention of the Synod in this way to victimize; 
which could not but be unpresbyterial, and destitute of any 
validity, as proceeding from such a source ; and assign the 
following reasons : — 

I. By means of the dishonor done to the Pittsburgh 
Presbytery, in laying a part of its certificate on the table, 
before the General Synod was organized ; the setting aside 
of four legal votes on the side of order, in its organization ; 
and the shock thus given to the friends of the good order of 
the house of God ; its organization was forced, irregular, 
partizan in its character, and on the side of those who gave the 
clearest evidence that they had prejudged the whole case ; 
and who were prepared, whether right or wrong, to condemn 
the Presbytery, and have me out of the Synod. For, 

1. They thus elected their own Moderator and Clerks. 
Had the order of the Church been observed, Dr. McLeod 

* The above are all the reasons of protest which I had time to prepare before 
the adjournment of the body ; as it did not decide against the Pittsburgh Pres- 
bytery until the evening of the last day of its sitting. These I proposed to read, 
but my right was refused. More of this afterwards. 



<6 



would have been removed from the office of stated Clerk, 
on account of his persisting so long in making minutes for 
the Synod, and in wilfully neglecting to enter those which 
are opposite to his own views, thereby bringing her " into 
deep waters," and keeping her in perpetual trouble ; and on 
account of his being the well known author of those anony- 
mous scribbles in the Banner of the Covenant, condemning 
the Presbytery without a hearing, for the purpose of injur- 
ing the object of his envious and jealous dread, who, while 
he would not fail to expose his tricks, and counteract his 
quackery in the Church, is one that would not treat him 
with injustice or dishonor. Then the complainant is elected 
Assistant Clerk, and acts in this capacity all the time that 
the Presbytery is on trial. These men were not fit, even 
although their close carnal ties were not taken into the ac- 
count, to keep the records of such a case. That they were 
not, as members know, the character of those records abun- 
dantly and painfully demonstrates. 

2. The Moderator appointed the Committee of Discipline, 
as brother-in-law of the complainant, and as one who had 
variously prejudged the case, in such a way as to have an 
unfair and partial report in relation to it. That Committee 
consisted of Drs. McMastek, and Wylie, and Mr. William 
Agnew. These Doctors were once men of considerable 
competency, but are now laboring under the multiplied in- 
firmities of senility. This is not their fault. " The hoary 
head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the ivay of 
righteousness" They are men whom I would delight to 
honor, if they would only honor themselves. But they 
are well understood not to be their own men, but the 
instruments of their junior relations, who unworthily take 
advantage of their frailties, by inducing them to act in a 
manner prejudicial to the Church. The former of these 
has scarcely been on speaking terms with myself, since 
the Basis of Union was overtured, by the Synod ofl847; 
when she cut loose, by one of a majority, from " the 
Convention of Reformed Churches." They both dislike 
the Pittsburgh Presbytery much, because it reported in 
favor of said Basis of Union, to the Synod of 1846. 
These men are the authors of the disingenuous and un- 
just report of the Committee of Discipline, in 1847, 



7 



which is not fit to be an ecclesiastical document at all; and 
which its friends, being ashamed of it, moved to lay on the 
table, all but the recommendation that my appeal from the 
Ohio Presbytery, in the case of Mr. James McLean, be not 
sustained ; but which, at my own request, was adopted, in 
order that the public might see how entirely unsupported 
was the conclusion to which it came, as well as the vindic- 
tive spirit which animated its members toward myself. 
This was the vengeance hurled at me, because I would not 
betray, in compliance with private solicitation, the cause of 
Christian and ecclesiastical union. This has been the sum 
of my offence. They professedly co-operated with us in 
that cause, up to the eleventh hour ; and while perhaps 
ninety-nine out of every one hundred of the members of the 
Church were for it, they all at once, without any good rea- 
son, become furiously opposed to it ; rally their family con- 
nections to an exterminating war against all who will not 
surrender their conscientious convictions to their caprice and 
pleasure ; stir up strife in congregations ; can apply no law 
for the rectifying of disorders which they have thus pro- 
duced; and browbeat and cajole the weak or the dependent 
of the Synod, into a reluctant submission. The latter of 
the Doctors is the uncle of the complainant, and the father- 
in-law of the famous Dr. "X. Y.," who had started the idea 
in the Banner of the Covenant, which could never have ori- 
ginated in any head but his own, nor even in his, but for his 
hope that he could carry it, against all law and order, 
through the influence of his family friends, that I was not a 
Minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church ; and who 
had so much at stake in the issue between his cousin, by mar- 
riage, Mr. Black, and the Presbytery. Of this same " X. Y." 
Mr. Agnew is the uncle. Such was the Committee. Com- 
mon delicacy and prudence would have dictated to them the 
propriety of their declining to sit in the case ; especially 
when requested to do so by a member of the Pittsburgh 
Presbytery ; and to allow it to be referred to a select Com- 
mittee of more impartial men. 

3. The allowing the Committee to withhold their report, 
until the afternoon of the day before the last of the sessions 
of Synod ; and then refusing the Presbytery time to pre- 
pare for its defence against the odd, and unjust, and untrue 



8 



arguments advanced against it, and conclusions arrived at, 
in said report : but hastening, by night sessions, the Synod 
to a close, in order that its condemnation might be effected 
without due reflection, and with the greatest precipitation. 

4. The extraordinary and unlawful power given to that 
Committee, of, sitting and prejudging the case without a 
hearing of the parties, and then coming into court with a 
lengthv and labored report, in favor of one of the parties ; 
then rallying their friends in support of it; then arguing for 
it ; then hearing the parties : and then exhibiting the reli- 
gious farce of sitting dispassionately and unprejudicedly in 
judgment upon it : instead of doing as in other bodies — 
merely presenting a report that the papers are regular — 
that the case is fit to be tried — and defining the order of 
procedure, without any expression of opinion upon its merits. 
This confuses and renders complex the whole subject. The 
case and the report are thus at once before Synod. Those 
who have judged and decided it, in the absence of the par- 
ties, now hear them, and cling to their own previously ex- 
pressed judgment. The grand juror is allowed to sit upon 
the same case, as a petit juror. This is utterly unlawful, 
and tends to vitiate the whole procedure. For all this the 
rules were made on the occasion. They had, as shall be 
seen, no authority. 

II. The base, the false, the illogical, the slanderous and 
vindictive character of the report of the Committee on 
Discipline, in its statements, or professed arguments, and in 
the conclusions resting upon them. 

1. While the only things for which the Pittsburgh Pres- 
bytery was arraigned before the bar of Synod, by its prose- 
cutor, or rather its persecutor, Rev. A. W. Black, were its 
refusal, for what it considered good cause, to enter upon its 
records his reasons of protest and appeal against its recep- 
tion under its care of the Church of the Covenanters, in 
the city of Cincinnati, and the alleged disorder of that re- 
ception, as going over the line between it and the Ohio 
Presbytery ; — this was all that was protested against ; there 
was no objection to the reception of myself, as Synod was 
well ascertained from the amplest and clearest evidence; — 
this Committee, perceiving that these points might be 
easily and amicably settled, say little about them, but bring 



9 



in a long tirade of abuse and misrepresentation of myself 
and my congregation, as out of the Reformed Presbyterian 
Church, and beyond the possibility of return ; and as un- 
worthy of being received by Presbytery, independently of 
any difficulty arising from the boundary line. Thus, while 
the Presbytery alone was on trial, not for my reception, but 
for the reception of my congregation, because it is beyond 
its limits ; and while neither myself nor my congregation 
was before Synod at all, nor could be, as the case stood, and 
the Moderator so informed the Synod ; our whole ecclesias- 
tical standing and rights are to be pronounced upon, under 
the most false accusations, without the liberty of uttering 
a word for information or defence ; the Presbytery is to be 
condemned, chiefly, for receiving us while hopelessly out of 
the Church, and not for what they are arraigned ; and yet, 
for the complete bewilderment of the simple, most Jesuit- 
ically, the report affirms that, by its adoption, I am not 
affected or touched. The Committee, therefore, created a 
new case, not before Synod, nor submitted to them ; or 
rather, adopted the case manufactured for them by* "X. Y." 
By this means, too, an unexpected mine was sprung under 
the feet of Presbytery ; and it was called upon to defend 
itself, not from any charges regularly brought against it, 
nor for what it had done, but for what it had not done ; and 
to expose the utter fallacy and inconsistency of the vague 
statements made against myself and congregation, in rela- 
tion to matters which had all transpired before we withdrew 
from the Ohio Presbytery, and were regularly certified by it, 
as all right ; and on account of which, as is well known, that 
withdrawal was effected. The Pittsburgh Presbytery did 
not place me in full communion and regular standing as a 
Minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, but merely 
honored the Certificate of the Ohio Presbytery, that I was, 
in my reception as one of its members : which was in perfect 
accordance with the knowledge and unanimous judgment of 
all who belonged to it. And as to the reception of my 
congregation, it was guided by the fact that my relation to 
it, as Pastor, had never been touched ; and by the report of 
the Ohio Presbytery to the Synod of 1848, printed in its 

* See an article in the Banner of the Covenant for last September, written by 
Dr. McLeod. 

2 



10 



Minutes, that, after I had announced to it that I had, with 
my congregation, withdrawn from it, it ordered said Certifi- 
cate of regular standing. Any action of Synod against the 
Presbytery, predicated upon this, is therefore utterly null 
and void. 

2. In this deeply designing, crafty, unjust and malicious 
report, the evident aim was, through the Presbytery, to have 
sentence of condemnation pronounced upon me and my 
congregation, without charge, without citation, without be- 
ing before Synod at all, without a hearing, and without a trial; 
in relation to certain matters, in which we were most griev- 
ously wronged, instead of being either guilty, or charged, or 
chargeable. The same evil spirit and influence which pre- 
vented the Ohio Presbytery and General Synod from trying 
the Reference from my Session of the case of those individuals 
whose names are published in the Minutes of the Synod of 
1847, with their associates, in which there are many and 
very weighty charges preferred against them, and which both 
Presbytery and Synod unanimously decided ought to be 
tried, — -and I would rather be tried and cast, whatever 
the penalty, than be on the books of the Church in this 
way, — and which we were prepared to substantiate, in every 
particular, with the most incontestible documentary and 
oral evidence ; -produced this report, and induced Synod to 
her preposterous and illegal action against the Presbytery 
at her bar. From the fact that there was no power in the 
Church to adjudicate that Reference, the interests of relig- 
ion suffered much in Cincinnati. Still, we forgave. God 
overruled the evil for great good. The matter was dead to 
us. We intended never to stir it up. The injured may 
make pacific overtures : the injurer never; nor will he read- 
ily believe that the past is buried in oblivion, by him whom 
he has wronged. We did so. We loved the Church, and 
her peace. If they had taken those persons under process 
to their bosom, and could make anything of them; let 
them do it. We never wished them ill, nor to break their 
head, but only that they should be law-abiding men, if they 
would have a place with us, in the congregation. They had 
so taken them ; and this is the reception which they give 
us. One of them, Mr. Peter Gibson, is a member of 
Synod : another, Mr. James McLean, who was also under 



11 



process when we withdrew from the Ohio Presbytery, is 
present as an alternate. The report refers to them as 
witnesses against me and my congregation, and on their 
own behalf — Mr. Gibson testifying to the body, sitting in a 
judicial capacity, that I preach just to four persons besides 
my own family! But even if there were any truth in this, 
it is altogether irrelevant to the point in hand. We are 
condemned because we suffered so much from the persons 
under process, and those who neglected their duty to adju- 
dicate the Reference, by themselves ; while we were never 
charged in regard to those matters, and are not before Synod, 
but they are professedly trying the Pittsburgh Presbytery 
for its transgressing an arbitrary boundary line. This 
is taking advantage of their own wrong, which the law does 
not allow; and worse than this. "Tell it not in Gath." 
Surely the resolutions based upon this, and adopted against 
the Presbytery, and as they were intended to affect myself 
and congregation, are worse than a nullity. 

3. The contemptuous manner, the boyish and the malign- 
ing spirit of the Report; and its bringing before Synod, as 
the main one, a case not embraced in the papers referred to 
it. Thus it begins by speaking of a certain Mr. William 
Wilson, once a Minister of this Church, for the reception 
of whom the Pittsburgh Presbytery is now on trial. Com- 
ment upon the spirit of this is unnecessary. How low the 
Committee and the Synod must have sunk, and how small 
they felt, when they found it necessary to have recourse to 
such arts, and to use such language, while sitting in a judi- 
cial capacity ! They are quite willing and desirous, as they 
say, that I should be a Minister at large, or of any other 
denomination ; but if I claim my place in my own, and my 
father's house, they will take from me the usual title of 
a Clergyman ! Oh how small and bitter ! What evil these 
gentlemen would do, if they had the power ! Could any- 
thing worthy have been expected from them, after this ? 
Very well. Let this title be overlooked, for the moment. 
As a substitute for something better, or without it, Mr., 
Rev., and even two, whole, capital letters affixed to a man's 
name, such as D. D., are "but leather and prunella." 
Merely as William Wilson, with God for my helper, I have 
nothing to fear from such opposition, but can meet it, and 



12 



put it down ; and for its own benefit, too, if it does not 
disregard, and cast behind its back, all good instruction. 
But the worst of this is, that it is not a report upon the 
subject before Synod, but upon one not before it, and 
in relation to which a question never was raised in the 
Pittsburgh Presbytery, nor in any other Court of the 
Church. " Once a Minister of this Church." That is, he 
is so no longer : for it is reported in the Banner, and " Gash- 
ing 'X. Y.,' saith it;" and this slander is now to be en- 
dorsed by Synod. By making such a report, the Committee 
most grossly insulted Synod ; and it ought to have been 
immediately rebuked and dismissed. This at once threw 
the Presbytery into an awkward predicament. It stood 
before the bar of Synod, to answer to a complaint about 
another matter. In the decision of this it has no vote. 
Comparatively little is made of that matter ; but a new and 
serious case is raised, in reference to which there is no charge 
against it, and it is, in no sense, a party. Here it is denied 
the right of deliberating, judging and voting. Where it re- 
ally is not, it is forced to be, a party. One of the largest 
Presbyteries connected with the Synod, and embracing a 
large share of her communicants, is declared out of the house, 
when the question raised by this Committee is decided, 
whether one of its accredited Delegates be at all a Minis- 
ter of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. That he was, 
Presbytery were unanimous in their judgment, even before 
they received him. Even the reasons of Protest and Appeal, 
written by Dr. Black, distinctly admit it, and that there 
wo aid be no difficulty, if he only removed into their proper 
boundaries. Its language is, " the certificate will, in no sense, 
justify us in receiving Mr. Wilson, unless he comes to reside in 
our bounds" That is, he is a Minister of the Church, as his 
Certificate testifies, and it will justify us in receiving him, 
if he moves within our bounds. Thus, most evidently, the 
question of boundary is the only one raised by the Protest 
and Appeal; and Synod, in its own queer humor and way, 
has decided against Dr. Black, and the other protestors. 
Why, then, if the question could be fairly raised in this 
way, or were properly before Synod, or could be entertained 
at all, deny the Presbytery the right of judging and voting 
upon it ? Had it been allowed to exercise its unquestion- 



13 



able rights, even this Synod would have decided that he 
was, and administered a severe rebuke to the Committee. 
When this position was taken, Presbytery would have 
been justified in either withdrawing altogether, or keep- 
ing silence. Can any thing in the annals of disorder 
and tyranny exceed this? What were human rights in the 
State, where anything parallel to this would be tolerated ? 
And what are the rights of the sons of God in the Church, 
if this outrage may be perpetrated with their acquiescence, 
or with impunity ? It is but honoring the action of Synod in 
the case, thus secured, too much, to say that it is null and void. 

4. The wanton and ruthless attack which it makes upon the 
regularity of my Session and congregation. It affirms that 
no Elder, in regular standing in the congregation, went 
with me; that the only Elder that went with me was not 
elected by the congregation, but admitted, through cour- 
tesy, to a seat in Session; that my congregation did not go 
with me ; that no congregation went with me ; and that I, 
in a schismatical and factious manner, contrary to my ordi- 
nation vows, irregularly ordained Elders, and organized a 
new congregation, under a new name, when we ceased to wor- 
ship in George street, and withdrew from the Ohio Presbytery. 

It is true, that at the time to which reference is made, 
the Session consisted of the Moderator and one Ruling El- 
der. That Elder had been regularly certified from the Ses- 
sion of New York, and was unanimously elected by the 
Session in this place, as an Elder of my congregation, on 
the motion of those men who afterwards, for their conduct, 
were placed under process for censure, and who then refused 
to have a congregtional meeting called, at my instance, for 
his election, alleging that it would be superfluous, as the 
members were so few, and as there was no opposition. In 
this the congregation tacitly acquiesced. He was sent by 
Session to represent it in every meeting of the Ohio Pres- 
bytery, but one, while we remained in connection with it ; 
and was delegated by said Presbytery to all the meetings of 
General Synod, during that period, twice as principal, and 
once as alternate ; and there was never a word uttered 
against the mode of his election, until it was found that he 
was incorruptible and steadfast, at a time when truth had 
fallen in the streets, and equity could not enter. Then the 



14 



disorderly of the Session and congregation, and their pa- 
trons in the Ohio Presbytery and elsewhere, raised this 
cavil. He was, indeed, a regular Elder of the congrega- 
tion, in the strictest sense, according to the law of the 
Church of Scotland, in relation to such a case ; and, as has 
been seen, was abundantly sanctioned by the congregation, 
the Presbytery and the Synod. That Elder, Mr. Thomas 
Wilson, I may be permitted to say, although he is my 
brother, his former associates in New York, and all who 
know him anywhere, however much he may be abused and 
misrepresented for the discharge of his duty here, would be 
slow to believe that he would originate an offence, or fail, at 
whatever risk, to be on the side of truth and righteousness. 

When we withdrew from the Ohio Presbytery, then, 
the Moderator and this Elder constituted the Session. The 
others were under process for then offences. They had 
reduced it to the lowest number, requisite for such a court. 
No doubt the insurgents of George street, and their friends 
and advisers abroad, honestly thought, in their wisdom, that 
they had destroyed the Session. Had they not hoped to 
accomplish this, it is believed, they w T ould have abstained 
from much of their unworthy conduct. But a better ac- 
quaintance with Presbyterianism would have saved them- 
selves from much sin and disgrace, and others from much 
trouble. Still, the assertion is made that I had no Session 
with me. In reply to this groundless allegation, it is 
sufficient to say, that a Teaching and a Ruling Elder con- 
stitute a valid Session, according to the Word of God and 
the Presbyterian Discipline. " For where two or three are 
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them." They are a private Church, if they be without offi- 
cers : if officers, they are a court. " Ordain Elders in every 
city." There must be a plurality in every organized Church ; 
but more is not essential. In conformity with this are the 
Presbyterian rule and practice, and the admissions of the 
best writers, as Miller, &c, in their defence. We endorse 
this in our own practice. I received a unanimous commis- 
sion from the Philadelphia Presbytery, in 1831, to ordain 
Elders in Milton, and do other sessional business, in connec- 
tion with one Hiding Elder. The Presbytery of Saharanpur 
was constituted, by direction of General Synod, with but 



15 



one Ruling Elder. Other cases, in our own practice, might 
be cited. A strong case in point has recently occurred in 
Cincinnati. Some difficulties arose between the Pastor and 
the majority of the Elders of the First Presbyterian Church. 
Only one remained with him : there were some five or six 
opposed to him. Both had their adherents in the congrega- 
tion. The case came before the Presbytery of Cincinnati. 
It virtually decided that the Pastor and one Elder, his fa- 
ther-in-law, Mr. James Johnston, were the Session; and their 
adherents, the members of the First Church, in organizing 
their opponents into the Seventh Presbyterian Church. Let 
this prating, therefore, be heard no more. 

It is not true that no congregation came with me from 
George street, and from the Ohio Presbytery. Not only did 
a congregation withdraw with me, but my congregation, 
over which I was installed Pastor, by the Ohio Presbytery, 
on the 21st of March, 1844, most regularly and decorously, 
through the grace of God, did ; and it is high time that the 
facts of the case be brought before the public. We have 
hitherto turned a deaf ear to much misrepresentation upon 
this subject, with quietude and patience ; knowing that God 
had intelligently registered all the facts, and would bring 
forth our righteousness as the light, and our judgment as 
the noon-day. I did not intend to agitate the subject. I in- 
tended to let it lie buried in oblivion: and if anything 
could be done for those individuals in George street, never 
to interfere, except for the promotion of their interests. 
Otherwise, I had never joined the Pittsburgh Presbytery. 
In taking this step, I resolved, by the help of God, to for- 
give and forget much. But the Synod, with those disor- 
derly individuals whom they have taken to their embrace, 
will not meet me here. So be it. They know that both can- 
not be regular ; and therefore they take such an outlandish 
and tyrannical method of denying our regularity, and of in- 
flicting upon us additional, most serious injuries. 

What then are the facts ? There is no regular church 
in George street : nor do I see how there ever can be upon 
that foundation. When we withdrew from the Ohio Pres- 
bytery, there was no officer belonging to it who was not, 
most righteously, under process for censure. We endeav- 
ored to have them fairly tried, for their benefit, but could 



16 



not have it effected. Their few adherents, after a long and 
honorable resistance, they had beguiled to follow them in 
their own devious ways, with the aid of the undecided and 
temporizing policy of the Ohio Presbytery. For the remiss- 
ness of Presbytery in their case, we withdrew. How could 
they then have a trial ? and how could they be regular 
without it ? We had borne long, in expectation that some 
one of the courts of the Church would apply to their case 
our acknowledged public law; but in vain. They were loose: 
we were bound by law. Everything was on the verge of 
ruin. We could not have the Sacrament of the Supper 
dispensed in the Spring, waiting for the Presbytery. We 
could not have it after it met, waiting for the commission of 
Synod. When the commission of Synod ceased to be, with- 
out acting, Session was then prepared to rectify the disor- 
ders in the congregation, by the just and impartial applica- 
tion to the offenders of the law of the house. The day was 
fixed for the celebration of our Lord's death, in the Sacra- 
ment of the Supper. As the time approached, there were 
sure indications that those persons would put forth violence 
on the occasion. They sent a constable upon the sexton 
who lived in the basement, to warn him out, because he 
would not give them the key of the church, that they 
might have possession of it ; and he was to throw him out 
on the Sacrament Saturday. From this and other things, 
which need not now be mentioned, not wishing to have our 
names connected with, nor religion and the Church disgraced 
by 7 a mob, I went on the morning of the Fast Day, and 
announced from the pulpit that the Sacrament was post- 
poned. Still, this did not quiet them. Shortly afterwards, 
and for the same reasons, I called a congregational meeting, 
twice from the pulpit, on the Sabbath, and urged upon all to 
attend, on the following Wednesday. The meeting was 
unusually well attended. After devotional exercises, the 
subject of leaving that house of worship, on account of the 
danger and the disgrace connected with remaining in it, and 
of waiving, for the present, the assertion of our right to the 
property, was calmly and deliberately considered. The con- 
gregation unanimously resolved to withdraw. This was 
some time before we determined to withdraw from the Ohio 
Presbytery ; and before the meeting at which it gave me 



17 



my certificate. It knew all the facts and circumstances 
well, both individually and as a Presbytery. Those remain- 
ing about George street, it had all by name in its archives, 
as, in one way or another, connected with our troubles. It 
never supposed, when I announced to it that I had with- 
drawn with my congregation, before it gave the certificate, 
as it reports to Synod, that those individuals were of the 
number. We would not have John McCormick, Peter 
Gibson, James Killough, Hugh McCollum, Thomas Gibson, 
and their associates, in their existing condition. The alle- 
gation made by Rev. IT. McMillan to the contrary, in 
Synod, is, to say the least of it, exceedingly disingenuous, 
and a most unworthy subterfuge ; and was happily contra- 
dicted on the spot, by Dr. Heron, who wrote the certificate, 
by Mr. Robert C. Reid who signed it, as clerk, and by Mr. 
Samuel Little, who was a member of the Presbytery at the 
time. We retained the key, and the house was locked up. 
Of our subsequent decision to withdraw from Presbytery, 
nothing was known until it transpired. And the rebels 
against the authority and laws of the Church, about George 
street, supposing that the Reference would now be taken 
up and adjudicated by Presbytery ; not doubting that, if 
fairly tried, they must be cast; and determined, at all 
events, to have possession of the church, that they might use 
it for some one of the various purposes which they had threat- 
ened ; on the very day of the meeting of Presbytery, broke 
into the church, took off the old locks, and put on new 
ones, and did not send a line nor a commissioner to Presby- 
tery. It was afterwards, at an adjourned meeting, when 
they heard that we had withdrawn, and silly, false tales were 
in circulation about me, and the Presbytery of the Lakes, 
and about my having left the Church altogether ; and when 
they thought their heads were safe, that they struck in with 
the Presbytery, and asked for preaching. That concern, 
therefore, is radically irregular. 

It is irregular, moreover, according to the rule unani- 
mously adopted by this Synod, namely, that a member of 
the Church applying for a certificate, must present a receipt 
from the board of trustees showing that he has paid all his 
pew-rent, before he be entitled to receive it. For it is a 
fact, that those who belong to it owed me hundreds of dol- 
3 



18 



lars of my salary, which, after getting otherwise rid of them, 
I felt it my duty to agree to remit, through my lawyer, 
Adam N. Riddle, Esq., of this city, as the only way of ob- 
taining a final settlement with them, without a law-suit ; to 
which, for the sake of religion, I am utterly averse, in such 
matters. Such is the concern which they at once have pro- 
nounced to be the regular congregation, and set up as a 
missionary station ; while denying, because it is rendered 
necessary by this, the regularity of mine, and doing us 
otherwise so much sheer injustice. Into it they pour their 
missionary money, that it may now have constant preaching; 
notwithstanding that the same individuals kept their house 
of worship closed, for a great part of the last twenty years. 
We sustain ourselves ; and would neither grudge nor com- 
plain on account of what might honorably and lawfully be 
done for them : but the extraordinary and utterly unwar- 
ranted position assumed by this body, in relation to us, has 
rendered it an imperious, although not a very pleasant, duty 
to remove the cloak of concealment and misrepresentation 
from George street, and make a candid exposure of its real 
ecclesiastical condition. 

They know this. Hence the zeal against my occupying 
my place in Synod, and the attack made upon my congre- 
gation. "If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's 
friend." " If we say that the baptism of John was from 
heaven, he will say, Why then believed ye him not?" If 
we the Committee or Synod say that Mr. Wilson and the 
Church of the Covenanters are regular, and in the Re- 
formed Presbyterian Church, it will be said, Why then did 
you so treat and misrepresent them ? and what will become 
of George street ? This was precisely the character of their 
logic and their principles. 

I did not then organize a new congregation, nor ordain 
elders without a Session. The best thing about my congre- 
gation is its perfect regularity. To God be all the glory, 
who sustained and directed us, in " a great fight of afflic- 
tion." And it would surely be undervaluing his grace, not 
to esteem this jewel more than even connection with this 
Synod. Neither did I act schismatically and factiously, 
contrary to my ordination vows. The reverse was the case. 
I sacrificed much for Christianity and the Church, in pur- 



19 



suance of my vows ; and I cheerfully leave the issue with 
God. Whose congregation did I disturb, by preaching in 
it, when I might ? What slander from the press, did I 
refute with my pen, during those years ? I was more than 
usual in my own pulpit, rejoicing that I was with God, and 
truth, and right, in the whole matter ; and not caring for 
the puny and envenomed attacks of those who did not 
know, and who, it would seem, did not wish to know, whereof 
they affirmed. 

And as it respects the new name of my congregation, 
" the Church of the Covenanters," it was adopted, as it is 
certainly very appropriate for Reformed Presbyterians, in 
order that it might be inscribed upon the wall of our house 
of worship, for the sake of distinction, that there might not 
be three edifices in the city bearing the inscription, "the 
First Reformed Presbyterian Church." 

5. Its gross misrepresentations in relation to my certifi- 
cate from the Ohio Presbytery, the use which I made of it, 
and my intercourse with the Presbytery of the Lakes ; as 
well as the immoral attempts to damage and discredit said 
certificate. 

The following facts will place this matter in its true light, 
and there are many witnesses of their truth : After ceas- 
ing to worship in George street, we unanimously resolved to 
withdraw from the Ohio Presbytery. For this my congre- 
gation were, if possible, more desirous than myself. It 
deeply felt that it had been wronged, by its neglect to 
apply the law of the house, as well as in other respects ; and 
it saw no prospect of redress from it, nor of peace or pros- 
perity, as matters stood, in that connection. Besides, being 
Clerk of Presbytery, self-respect required of me that I 
should not sit in it, and read over the long Reference of the 
case of those men, containing very grave charges ; which it 
would not try, although unanimously admitting that it 
ought ; — individual members alleging, out of doors, that the 
reason of this was, that they were a family Presbytery ; — 
which Synod did not try, notwithstanding its unanimously 
expressed judgment also that it ought to be tried; and 
which, if the Session now adjudicated it, to whom it had 
now come back, as it was now well able, would be followed 
by unpleasant results, from the same avowed incompetency 



20 



of the Presbytery. In withdrawing from the Presbytery, 
however, we did not withdraw from the Church. Against 
this, explicit provision is made in the document adopted by 
Session ; which is still upon its records. In the same doc- 
ument, we agreed to submit a proposition to the Presbytery 
of the Lakes, in order to ascertain if they would have union 
upon the ground occupied before, and at, the formation of 
the Subordinate Synods, in 1831, by the yet undivided 
Church. This mode of procedure, most obviously, super- 
seded the necessity and propriety of either asking or pre- 
senting a certificate ; and neither they nor I either expected 
or desired it. We could have joined any Church in the 
land, in this way, without it. Besides, they knew us and 
the circumstances well. The two Presbyteries met on the 
same day, in the same neighborhood — the latter an hour or 
two earlier than the former. At its opening, the proposition 
was submitted to it. It was well received. Before final 
action upon it, I had to repair to the other Presbytery, the 
hour of its meeting having arrived, in order to deliver up 
to it its book of Minutes, which I had in my possession, as 
its Clerk. The Elder from my congregation accompanied 
me. It was already in session. I made an unvarnished 
statement of the foregoing facts. There was no common 
manifestation of good feeling, on the part of the Presby- 
tery, which, I doubt not, was genuine : for we never 
f ,had any difficulty before the Reference was made to it 
from my Session ; nor even about it, except from its in- 
competency to try it ; and it knew that we had been greatly 
. wronged. A certificate was proposed. I assented, as, al- 
' though not necessary, it was an expression of good feeling 
, which ought to be reciprocated. I told Dr. Heron, when 
1 writing the certificate, — and, I am sure, he will so affirm, if 
' his memory do not fail him, — not to write it for the Pres- 
1 bytery of the Lakes, but indefinite in this respect, as it was 
not needed for that body, and I did not intend to present 
. it to it. He replied, " that is just what I am doing." He 
j wrote it, not unwittingly, therefore, as it reads. He read it 
i in court. The Moderator said to me that if that kind of 
; certificate pleased me, he supposed Presbytery had no ob- 
jection. He put the question, and it was unanimously ap- 
proved. That Presbytery, therefore, knew well that my 



21 



certificate was given, not for the Presbytery of the Lakes, 
nor for any other body, in particular ; but that I might use 
it, at discretion, in forming, or not, another presbyterial or 
ecclesiastical connection : the allegations of the protest and 
appeal against the Pittsburgh Presbytery, to the contrary 
notwithstanding. The following is a copy of this famous, 
but much misrepresented, document : 

" This is to certify, that the bearer, Rev. William Wilson, is in 
full communion, and good standing, as a Minister of the Reformed 
Presbyterian Church ; and may be received by any branch of the 
Church of Christ, to which he may see fit to make application. 

H. McMillan, Moderator. 

Robert C. Reid, Clerk. 1 " 

Garrison Creek, Oct. 6, 1847. 

This is the certificate upon which I was received, by the 
Pittsburgh Presbytery. It honored its sister of Ohio, by 
exercising unquestioning faith in her statements. It was well 
aware itself that I was a Minister of the Church ; and it 
exercised the right of all Presbyteries, to receive their mem- 
bers, upon the ground that they present, when applying, 
clean papers ; which it is too late in the day to call in 
question. And here, I think it proper, even if it were 
otherwise not the most suitable place for them, to insert 
the two resolutions which a majority of this Synod adopted, 
against the Presbytery and myself, while affirming in one 
of them that it does not touch me ; in order that all may 
compare them at a glance, and see that their assertions 
are entirely gratuitous — that the action of Presbytery, and 
my ecclesiastical position, are the very opposite of that 
which they affirm in regard to them — and that, waiving 
every thing about their grammar and tautology, they immor- 
ally attempt to kill one class of facts, and make another, for 
the purpose of seriously injuring their brethren in Christ 
Jesus. These resolutions, too, are adopted after the com- 
plaint, the Protest and Appeal against our Presbytery, are 
sustained. This shows that they knew, that these did not 
touch my standing as a Minister in the Church, or in the 
Presbytery, apart from the question of boundary; and that 
their sustaining them did not deny it, nor affirm the oppo- 
site. Hence they adopt, ex mero motu, that is, arbitrarily, 
and not only without, but contrary to law, these, to decide 



22 



the case made for them by Rev. Dr. "X. Y.," in the con- 
demnation of the Presbytery, in terms only applicable to 
lawless men, although it is not a party in it, and in de- 
priving me of my dearest ecclesiastical rights, without offence, 
or trial, and under the most groundless assumptions. But 
to the resolutions. Here they are: — 

1. "Resolved, That the conduct of the Pittsburgh Presbytery, 
in the reception of Mr. Wilson, was disorderly, and subversive of the 
provisions of ecclesiastical law in the case, and of the principles of 
social order. 

2. "Resolved, That this Synod emphatically condemn the action of 
the Presbytery of Pittsburgh, at their pro renata meeting, in the case 
before stated ; declare it to be legally null and void of authority ; and 
leave the said Rev. William Wilson, in the same ecclesiastical posi- 
tion, in which he had placed himself, (without the communion of the 
Reformed Presbyterian Church, ) previous to the said action of the 
Pittsburgh Presbytery in his case. Him this Synod do not touch." 

" The provisions of ecclesiastical law in the case, and the 
principles of social order" ! "Words! words! words!" 

These resolutions, in connection with the Certificate, make 
the whole subject plain, and easily understood. Comment 
is unnecessary. But it may be said that any body that would 
pass them, in the face of the facts, could not honor those 
whom they would thus injure more than by their adoption. 
In such bodies, when such things are being done, there is a 
class of men who always will be, and they always have 
been, in the minority, if at all of their communion. And 
by so much as a man feels himself bound by his vow, to 
obey the Synod in the Lord ; he revolts at the idea of sub- 
mission to this; because it would be out of the Lord, and 
contrary to him ; and out of the pale of " all things which 
are true, honest, lovely, and of good report." The facts, too, 
which these resolutions would destroy, nevertheless live, 
and shall live, to all eternity ; while the facts which they 
would create, live not, neither can they, although all men 
and assemblies voted to the reverse : for they are simply 
the absolute negation of being. But to return from this 
digression. 

This was my last intercourse with that Presbytery. It 
spontaneously gave the above Testimonial, with perfect 
knowledge of all matters and circumstances connected with 
my congregation, and with every step I had taken up to 



23 



that moment ; as was happily testified, by three of its mem- 
bers, on the floor of Synod, as I have shown above, in contra- 
diction of the statement of Rev. H. McMillan to the oppo- 
site. They knew all, too, as a Presbytery, as has been already 
evinced ; so that this unworthy distinction between them as 
individuals, and as a Presbytery, by which he attempted to 
recover himself, will not avail him. All this, too, was, as 
Presbytery reported to the next Synod, held upwards of a 
year subsequently, after I had informed it that I had with- 
drawn with my congregation, and had submitted the propo- 
sition to the Presbytery of the Lakes; and, according to 
the doctrine of the Rev. Dr. " X. Y.," which was adopted, 
by this Synod, to serve such a purpose, that Synod adopts 
whatever her Presbyteries report, the Synod of 1848 ap- 
proved, by the adoption of that report, of the certificate, 
and of all the transactions reported in that connection. This 
ought to have shielded me from all the attacks made upon 
me by this Synod, by going irregularly behind the certifi- 
cate, for false accusations, while allowing me to make no 
defence; and that to the dishonor of both the Ohio Pres- 
bytery and the Synod herself, in the affair of said certifi 
cate. If I did not deserve it, they ought not to have 
given it. They knew I deserved it; but the tables are 
turned, if I remain in the Church. And does not this doc- 
ument speak, distinctly and loudly, the conviction' of Pres- 
bytery, that we had been much wronged, while we were 
ourselves right, in the preceding difficulties? The Searcher 
of Hearts, and their own deepest consciousness, are, doubt- 
less, witnesses, at this moment, that they gave it with much 
sorrow, on account of the nerveless course which they had 
pursued, as described above, and which had occasioned our 
withdrawal. And what does it not say against the George 
street concern ? What does it not say in favor of the reg- 
ularity of my congregation ? It says so much, that, if we 
will not leave the Church of our birth, it must be treated 
as worse than a thing of nought ; and we must be forced, in 
defiance of all law and custom, into a false position, in re- 
lation to those matters which preceded it, which those who 
gave it had distinctly in view, at the time of giving it, and 
in relation to which it testifies, at least, our innocence. 
Presbytery and we then parted, with every demonstra- 



24 



tion of good-will. We repaired to the Presbytery of the 
Lakes. After continuing, for some time, the comparison of 
notes about the ground occupied by the Reformed Presby- 
terian Church, in this land, before her unhappy division, in 
1833, its causes, its concomitants, and its consequents; 
which was the first that ever took place in an ecclesiastical 
court, in immediate connection with that rupture, on ac- 
count of the haste with which it was effected, and which 
was, on the whole, both pleasant and profitable ; I withdrew, 
for the time, as our immediate design had been thereby ac- 
complished, the proposition. This was done in the presence 
of hundreds, of various denominations, including a member 
of the Ohio Presbytery. The tales are, therefore, entirely 
gratuitous and inexcusable, that I either presented to it my 
certificate, or that it was unwilling to receive me. To have 
done the former, would, in the circumstances, have been 
preposterous : the reverse is true in the latter. No man 
need be under a mistake, as to these points. But they are 
of no great consequence ; and are merely magnified and 
misrepresented, for effect. For if they had been unwilling 
to receive me, it was not upon the ground of general un- 
worthiness, — which is the idea the slanderer wishes to be 
taken up by the public ; but upon a ground common to 
those who raise and circulate the story, with myself; so 
that, in seeking to injure me, they dishonor themselves. 
And if I had presented to it my certificate, I had a right to 
lift it again, and be received by any denomination, upon its 
footing, professing to be a branch of the church of Christ. 
Did not the Rev. G. T. Ewing present his certificate to the 
Monongahela Presbytery of the Associate-Reformed Church, 
and, upon some difficulty arising, again withdraw it, and 
present it to the Pittsburgh Presbytery, by which he was 
received? Was there. any objection to this, or noise made 
about it ? No. The eye of man never saw my Certificate, 
out of my own family, after it was received, until I pre- 
sented it to the Pittsburgh Presbytery. I did not even take 
it to Pittsburgh, but only a Memorial from Session. The un- 
expected opposition of Dr. and Mr. Black, however, to the re- 
ception of my congregation, exclusively because it was be- 
yond its boundary line, rendered it advisable to write for it. 
I did so ; and it was sent to me, in a letter, by mail. I did 



25 



not attach much importance to it. I never supposed it 
would become so famous. The allegations, therefore, as has 
been already shown, that it was given for quite a different 
purpose — that it was presented to any other body — that it 
was "worn out" when I presented it to the Pittsburgh 
Presbytery, — which would insinuate that I had used it all 
over Christendom, but could obtain no admission! — that it 
is anything else, but a bona fide Certificate, understanding^ 
given, and meaning just what appears on its face — or in rela- 
tion to my intercourse with the Presbytery of the Lakes — 
made in this Report, and in the reasons of protest and 
appeal — are utterly without 'foundation; and in diametrical 
opposition to the facts. And, if it merited to be honored 
by any other denomination, it certainly cannot be dishon- 
ored by this Church, without leaving the indelible stamp of 
ignominy upon her forehead. 

6. The reiterated affirmations, that I am not a Minister 
of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 

Now I never withdrew from her, but only from the Ohio 
Presbytery. What, then, put me out of her? Did the 
proposition to the Presbytery of the Lakes? Does not 
the Ohio Presbytery certify, after knowing that I had with- 
drawn from her, and submitted that proposition, that I am 
still in full communion, and good standing, as a Minister, 
in her ? Did not General Synod, more than a year after- 
wards, approve of that transaction, with all that it involved, 
according to its own logic ; and with a full knowledge of 
the occasion of it, and of what had taken place prior to this? 
They being witnesses, then, this did not put me out. Be- 
sides, if I had even joined the Presbytery of the Lakes, 
would that have put me out of the Reformed Presbyterian 
Church ? Away with small, unprincipled and proscriptive 
sectarianism, for the moment ! Look the facts full in the 
face ! Cease to be deluded yourselves, or to delude others! 
Are not the two Synods, in this country, in real, although 
not in formal, connection, through the medium of the Mother 
Church, in Scotland; who clings to them both with maternal 
affection and solicitude, and to whom they cling with intense 
tenacity? Did she not always correspond, by letter, with 
the other branch, but cease with us, from 1835 to 1844, 
until she perceived, in the resolutions adopted by the Con- 
4 



26 



vention of Reformed Churches, at its session in 1842, and 
transmitted to her by the General Synod, of the same year, 
that we had a growing attachment to the principles of the 
Second Reformation ; when she resumed her wonted inter- 
course with us ? — Resolutions, the effect of which at home 
was, to make some who now seem zealously affected 
toward her cause, and who would wrong and exclude 
their brethren, in order that they may do such busi- 
ness as this, when occasion serves, with impunity, and ride 
into notice and fame upon the back of a sect, thus mangled 
and disfigured,* possessing its name, but not its spirit ; to 
meditate, for the first time, the continuance of the denom- 
ination: reigning in which is the price of their attachment and 
their zeal. This statement is founded upon known facts; and 
is no construction put upon motives. And what but this, 
with cognate matters, accounts for the treatment which the 
cause of union received, and the tergiversations, proscrip- 
tions, and persecutions which have since occurred ? Was 
it not one of the main reasons assigned by the protesters 
against the sending down of "the Basis of Union," in over- 
ture, by Synod, in 1845, and which they intended to have 
a prevailing influence with our people, that the formation of 
"the United Presbyterian Church" would break up this con- 
nection? Is not this Synod very desirous, by profession, 
that this connection should continue ? Does she not urge 
them to endeavor to heal their breach? Did not this 
Synod agree to meet the other, on the ground occupied be- 
fore the division, in 1835 ? Are not those who would now 
most unjustly deprive me of my rights, in the habit of assur- 
ing the Transatlantic Brethren — I have given them no pri- 
vate pledges — that they are still desirous of this ? Was I 
then cut off from the Reformed Presbyterian Church, by 
this step? Or would I have been without her communion, 
even if I had united with them ? Placed in the circum- 
stances that we were, and when brethren had turned against 
the cause of union with the other Reformed Churches, 
through their avowed attachment to the distinctive cause 
and name of the Reformed Presbyterian Church ; was it 
unreasonable to make a proposition in that direction ? And 

* " Misguided action may inflict a mortal malady. The name may linger, 
but the society is gone." — Address by the late Dr. A. McLeod. 



27 



might not great good to the whole of that interest in the 
hands of both Synods, in this country, have been the result 
of the making and the reception of that proposition ; as 
well as the discovery effected by it, that the main and the 
only insuperable barrier to their re-union, had, in fact, in 
the estimation of the other side, no existence ; but for that 
spirit which has, here and now, reached its highest state of 
effervescence, and those misrepresentations which have now 
arisen to their climax ? Or what was there in the making 
of the proposition, to awaken such wrath, after the certificate 
granted subsequently to their knowledge of the step ? Ab- 
surd! It is absolutely sickening to notice such quibbles and 
fallacies. But I did not join them. I present my certificate, 
for the first time, to one of her own Presbyteries ; which is as 
valid with her as any other, if she considers herself a branch 
of the church of Christ: I am received: I am certified, as 
one of her Delegates, to Synod : I am refused a seat : and 
we are told that I am a member of no Presbytery ; and 
that no Presbytery is competent to receive me! Thus I 
can never return: for Presbytery is the door by which Min- 
isters enter into Synod. These false positions, however, 
cannot affect my standing in the Church, Made facts can- 
not be the basis of valid ecclesiastical decisions. 

7. This individual's name was stricken from the roll of 
the Ministry of the Reformed Presbyterian Church ; and 
therefore he "could not be received upon a certificate that 
he was in full communion, and good standing, in her, as a 
Minister. 

This is the argument. I pretend not to give the precise 
words. This is another mode of proving, that I am hope- 
lessly out of the Church. When and where did this strik- 
ing from the roll occur ? and what was its object ? It is 
known that it failed at Synod, in New York, where Dr. 
Wylie could not get any one to second his motion, to that 
effect, made at its opening, and renewed . at its close. He 
must have considered that it was not done, before that time. 
Was it done by the Ohio Presbytery, from the list of her 
own Ministers? If so, when? and why? If after she 
supposed I had formed a connection with the other body, 
she could not do it, for it was not on her roll, and she would 
be chargeable with a mere mistake. If it was done after- 



28 



wards, when she fully knew that I had given my certificate 
to no other body, and implying anything like discipline, she 
at once dishonored herself and her certificate, and rendered 
herself worthy of censure by Synod : for I belonged to her, 
according to Presbyterian order, until I formed another con- 
nection. And the humblest individual in the Church, upon 
becoming a member, has the guarantee of a solemn covenant 
from God and her, that he shall not be cast out without a 
regular and fair trial ; with the right of appeal from the 
lowest to the highest court of judicature, which she cannot 
break with impunity. Strike a Minister's name pro libitu 
from the roll, under mistake, and without a trial ! This it is 
best not to characterize. But the worst of it is, for the 
representative Synod to tell him and his congregation, when 
it is ascertained that he never left the Church, and that he 
is certified by his Presbytery to sit in it, you are out, and 
you cannot come in ! But this is, after all, only a mere 
subterfuge. For if it were true, it would be no bar to en- 
trance through the medium of Presbytery. That court has 
the right to judge of its own members. Good standing in 
it secures the same in Synod. There were several names 
now added to the roll of Synod, through their connection 
with their Presbyteries, which were never there before. The 
action, therefore, predicated upon these . positions is worse 
than of no force. 

The preposterous assumption, however, did not start from 
any of these things. It was originally a ridiculous private 
slander. Its history is this. Shortly after we withdrew 
from the Ohio Presbytery, I visited New York, for the pur- 
pose of raising funds to aid in building a church. In order 
to prevent my success, — in which he signally failed, — the 
Rev. Dr. "X. Y." took pains to circulate the report that I 
did not belong to the Church, but was originating a new 
sect. During my stay in that place, he went cross to Phil- 
adelphia, and published it in the Banner, anonymously, early 
in the Spring of 1848. In the May following, he went to 
the anniversary of the American Evangelical Alliance, and 
moved that my name be stricken from the roll of its Vice 
Presidents, assuring them that I did not belong any more 
to the Reformed Presbyterian Church. The next October, 
when the Synod met, he tried to have my name removed 



29 



from the roll, through the influence of his father-in-law, but 
did not succeed. He then, according to his wont, published 
the minutes so as to make it appear that it had been ac- 
tually done. When I joined the Pittsburgh Presbytery, he 
came out as "X. Y.," representing what he had so long be- 
fore its meeting published as a fact, as having been effected 
by Synod ; and arraigning the Presbytery for receiving me 
before I was restored by Synod. This was novel, indeed ! 
a new species of Presbyterianism! This changed the posi- 
tion of matters considerably, in our Presbytery. He per- 
sisted. He was strongly committed; and the original mo- 
tives were not diminished. Failure would have been to him 
public ignominy. He rallied his friends, and left the East 
uttering the threat, " If Mr. Wilson is in the Synod, I shall 
be out of it." And whither would he go ? Would he — ? 
But manum de tabula. Of the rest I do not wish to speak. 
The public understand him, to some extent. They will say, 
that he is at least very ungrateful to me and mine. This is 
no small aggravation of the unworthiness of his conduct. 
Thus Synod was forced into this unparalleled and disgraceful 
position, to endorse a private slander ! A court of Christ 
thus lending itself! Alas ! alas ! 

For all this the protest and appeal, and complaint, are 
but the mere pretext. The other cannot be got into Synod, 
but under their cover. This, too, explains the resolution of 
Mr. Black to cut up the certificate of delegation, before the 
Synod was organized. Without the passage of that, Mr. 
Wilson will be recognized as a member, and Rev. Dr. " X. 
Y." cannot put the Presbytery on trial before it, for what 
was never questioned within it. The Pittsburgh meridian 
would not allow venturing farther, than the protesters went 
last July, but, by this means, all can be accomplished at 
Synod. Pretty adroit Jesuitism ! But it is so purely ab- 
surdity and rottenness, that I am afraid that paying any at- 
tention to it is a sin. If an odious and vengeful sectarian- 
ism, and foiled vanity and ambition, in what was, on my part, 
honorable debate, thus repudiate me, it might, perhaps, be 
about as well to treat it with silent contempt. Such perse- 
cution, however, is sufficient to make " the stones immedi- 
ately cry out." And, however from my very inmost soul 
despising it, and feeling invulnerable to its edge, I am con- 



30 



strained by a sense of indispensable obligation, to let the 
sun of truth in upon these dark doings, and this dark con- 
spiracy, in order that the proper corrective and counterac- 
tive influence may be applied to them — especially that of 
the unambitious and unsophisticated Christian People, who 
have so much interest in the administration of the affairs of 
the Church ; and who have the right and the capacity, as 
Protestants and Covenanters, to scrutinize the acts of her 
courts and her officers, and to refuse them their sanction or 
countenance, if they do not accord with the Law and the 
Testimony, and with their own, solemnly adopted, Subordi- 
nate Standards. 

8. The false position in which it places the Pittsburgh 
Presbytery. The case manufactured by Rev. Dr. "X. Y.," 
that no Presbytery could receive Mr. Wilson, until he should 
be restored by Synod ! about which no difference of judg- 
ment was expressed in Presbytery, it, under cover of re- 
porting upon a complaint, touching quite a different matter, 
adopts; and while few, I verily believe, are fully aware of it, 
most irregularly thrusts it into the Synod. Thus it is dragged 
up and arraigned upon a new case, in which it is not a party; 
and it is put out of the house in its decision. For this it 
receives condemnation. Can tyranny surpass this, in disre- 
gard of rights, of laws, or of forms ? 

9. The grandiloquent, exaggerated and coarse terms 
which it employs, in heaping misrepresentation and abuse 
upon the Presbytery. For example : " Against his recep- 
tion by the Pittsburgh Presbytery, Dr. Black solemnly 
warned" — " his reception was an act of discourtesy to the 
Ohio Presbytery, and to the living and the dead" — " by 
his reception, Presbytery committed a preposterous outrage 
upon the universal law of ecclesiastical order, and of all 
social order" — "by his reception, Presbytery endorsed the 
elective affinity principle" — "this individual's name had 
been stricken from the roll of the Ministry of the Reformed 
Presbyterian Church" — " the action of a majority of this 
Presbytery, usurped the power of Synod" — "no Presby- 
tery was competent to receive him" — "he is a member of 
no Presbytery" — " he withdrew from the communion of the 
Reformed Presbyterian Church" — " we do him no harm by 
refusing him a seat in Synod, but only leave him where he 



31 



placed himself," — "him this Synod do" — does — "not touch" 
— "for its sympathy with him, Synod is under obligation to 
condemn this Presbytery, in order to set a high example 
before society, in an age when, through a morbid sensibility, 
protection is too frequently extended to crime and crimi- 
nals" — " the spirit that actuated Presbytery, and the char- 
acter of the conduct of the majority, in rejecting the pro- 
test and its reasons, it is left to this court to say, whether it 
is more an act of discourtesy to the dead or the living — 
there is no parallel between the reception of his congrega- 
tion, by this Presbytery, and the reception of Dr. Alexan- 
der McLeod's congregation, by the Philadelphia Presbytery. 
The Ohio Presbytery is gentle, amiable, peaceful"' — the 
writer of this is himself a member of it ! — " and exemplary : 
the old Southern Presbytery of New York, was the oppo- 
site. The former offered no violence : the latter did." 

Such is a specimen of the tone and temper of this judi- 
cial report. And is it not rich and racy? Is not its logic 
remarkably original, as furnishing reasons why the Synod 
should sustain a complaint upon the Pittsburgh Presbytery, 
because it had not received the reasons of protest and ap- 
peal, in relation merely to its taking under its care a con- 
gregation beyond the line drawn by Synod between it and 
the Ohio Presbytery ? What is the • worth of the conclu- 
sions thus reached? I pretend not, however, to give the 
very words of the report. " Touch not the unclean thing," 
is an admonition which I carefully heeded with regard to 
it. The Presbytery had it a while and., Mr. Scott reading 
its arguments aloud, Mr. Guthrie, to whom I am indebted 
for a copy, took notes for the defence. Meeting each of 
these, so called, arguments, although the most of them are 
entirely beyond the record, in a speech of gigantic power, 
continued for hours, he tore them completely to tatters. 
The other members followed, and also honored themselves 
in the defence ; and produced conviction in all unprejudiced 
minds, that their cause was that of their Master. As the 
result, the writer, Dr. McMaster, ashamed of it, got up and 
moved that all the argumentative part be laid on the table ! 
What then is the effect of the resolutions finally adopted, 
which rest solely upon this ? The foundation removed, the 
superstructure falls. 



32 



The above arrogant, nonsensical, intolerant and unpres- 
byterial assumptions, it will be clearly seen, cannot stand 
before the facts. They are undeserving of any notice. And 
what is this Presbytery, upon which such torrents of burn- 
ing obloquy are poured ? There is no time, since I have 
known them, when I would not have said that, in every 
respect, my present Co-Presbyters are among the wor- 
thiest Ministers of the Church. This is my testimony now. 
Competent for their high stations, and vigilant and diligent 
in their spheres — beloved by their flocks, and respected by 
all who know them — loving the peace, the purity, the unity 
and the prosperity of the Church, they are forward in every 
good work, but without emulation, ambition or ostentation. 
Our eldership and membership are not surpassed in Christian 
character, in the Church ; and they constitute, numerically, 
a large proportion of the denomination to which they be- 
long. We are bound to each other by no carnal ties ; and 
have no private ends to accomplish by our ecclesiastical 
operations. And it is my most solemn conviction, that in 
the transactions of the Fourth of last July, about which all 
this noise is raised, it was their sole object to do right, and 
to promote edification. That such, exclusively, was my 
own, I am fully conscious. If wrong had been done in the 
past, in relation to myself or congregation, either more 
locally or generally, I was determined to act with my breth- 
ren as if it had not been perpetrated. With no other feel- 
ing, should I have joined any Presbytery in the Church. 
We stood, as we were, upon a solid rock. But, being about 
to visit Europe for health, and other objects, according to 
my intention, I wished to leave my congregation under the 
care of Presbytery. This accounts for the step, which was 
premeditated, just at that time. As matters stood, mutual 
edification would not have been promoted by again forming 
a connection with that of Ohio. The Session unanimously 
resolved to make application to the Pittsburgh Presbytery; 
and I carried up its Memorial, to that effect. In due time, 
the meeting was called for my reception, as " a Minuter of 
the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and for whatever might 
grow out of it" On the day appointed, the attendance was 
large. Both Dr. and Mr. Black voted that the call of 
the Moderator should be sustained, and the Presbytery ac- 



33 



eordingly constituted. I presented the certificate, of which 
the above ia a copy. A motion was duly brought before 
court that I should be received on it. Mr. Black opposed 
it, and said, if it passed, he would be compelled to enter his 
protest against it ; but not because of unwillingness to re- 
ceive me, if I should remove into their bounds, as he, again 
and again, loudly affirmed in presence of a considerable au- 
dience ; but solely because of what he saw would grow out 
of it— the reception of my congregation, notwithstanding 
it was over the line. Dr. Black, in order to avoid even the 
appearance of voting and protesting against the reception 
of my self \ moved, as a substitute, that the questions on the 
two points be taken together. This was the understood and 
avowed reason. Why else move it ? This was lost. Mr. 
Black then, in each case, protested and appealed, and his 
father and elder concurred. But there was no warning voice 
against the reception of me. Had Dr. Black, indeed, or 
any other member of Presbytery, raised a serious ques- 
tion in regard to my membership or Ministry in the Re- 
formed Presbyterian Church ; or had I thought that Synod 
was a body that would entertain such a question, for a mo- 
ment, my certificate had been instantly withdrawn. To be 
in a community where such a proposition could be made 
with impunity, is safe for no man. 

I knew, indeed, that the present Rev. Dr. " X. Y.,'' had, 
in the Synod of 1842, in Philadelphia, as a substitute for 
argument, upon an important point, seconded a motion 
made by one of his own Elders, Mr. Joseph McKee, a good 
man, who at that time was under his deceptive influence, 
that I should be expelled, but he was rebuked by the frown 
of the court; and that he had otherwise busied himself, 
more recently, to spread abroad the rumor that I had gone 
from the Church, as has been shown above, and that my 
name had been stricken from the roll of her Ministry. 
But this I regarded as only sui generis, and did not sup- 
pose that any other would sympathize with him in this feel- 
ing, or adopt the misstatement ; and especially, if true, the 
notion that I could not return. This is a point which the 
Presbytery settled, without condition. It could not have 
done otherwise, in consistency with its own self-respect, or 
the Presbyterian regimen. This is not a matter for refer- 



34 



ence nor submission. It judges its members, and who they 
are. It is an original body. Synods do not make mem- 
bers of Presbyteries ; but good standing in Presbytery 
entitles to the same in Synod. Supposing, for the sake of 
argument, that my name were off the roll of Synod, 
somehow, how could it get on it again, but through connec- 
tion with a Presbytery ? Supposing I had been a convert 
from Popery or the world, and had become a member of the 
Pittsburgh Presbytery, since the last Synod, did not a cer- 
tificate of the fact place my name on the roll of this Synod ? 
Most assuredly. 

But here the Rev. Dr. U X. Y." interposes, and the Synod so 
decide, " Mr. Wilson was out of the Church, and there is no 
Presbytery competent to receive him, until he be restored 
by Synod !"* This just reverses the Presbyterian order. 
It is also inconsistent with the very being and character of 
a delegated body. When its work, for which it was delega- 
ted, is done, and it has adjourned, it ceases to be. Its con- 
stituents may elect a new body, of the same kind ; but its 
members are not so because they were members of the last, 
but because they give evidence that they have been regu- 
larly delegated, by their constituents, to sit in it. Thus it 
is with Congress, oar State Legislatures, the General Synod, 
the General Assembly, &c. And supposing a Giddings to 
be expelled for doing his duty, by a certain Congress, under 
the influence of the prevalence of the mob-spirit, for the 
hour, might not his constituents send him to the next, — 
which actually did take place, — and would not that place 
his name on the roll ? Supposing an Adams to have been 
expelled, by a lawless, factious majority, who could not an- 
swer his arguments, nor brook his worth, for his manly per- 
sistency in the right, as was almost the case on one occasion, 

*" A representative assembly, may not make its own members. They are 
elected according to pre-existing regulations: and snch is the constitution of 
the Presbyterian Church that the members of its superior judicatories are 
commissioned by the Presbyteries or Classical Assemblies. The Supreme 
Gourt cannot make a judge; nor can the Congress make a senator or a repre- 
sentative. 

" It were well if Presbyterians should learn back from the Civilians, the 
sound principles of social order which have been first taught by the Ecclesias- 
tical Reformers." The late Dr. Alexander McLeod. 

" How is the gold become dim !" A representative Synod making a rep- 
resentative to sit in itself! The very expression shows the absurdity of the 
thing. 



35 



could not the constituents of his District have sent him 
back ; and would not their certificate that he was their del- 
egate, place his name on the roll of the body ? Or rather, 
are not all such expulsions, or attempts at them, and refu- 
sals to honor the credentials furnished by the constituents 
of their members, on the part of delegated bodies, the most 
complete mobocratic violence and anarchy ; and subversive 
of their own very existence ? And who, I pray, are the con- 
stituents of General Synod ? The Presbyteries. They 
create them. And it is not the fact that their names were 
on the roll of the last Synod, that makes individuals have 
their names upon the roll of this, which is a new one ; but 
the fact of their certificate of delegation from their Pres- 
byteries. This is a matter which cannot be submitted, by 
the Presbyteries, to the Synod ; nor even be sent down, in 
overture, to them, by the Synod. This would be legisla- 
ting for suicide. No Presbytery could have refused me on 
my certificate. And I defy " the gates of hell," and their 
allies on earth, to reach me over my Presbytery ; so long 
as I am, through the grace of my God, worthy of a place in 
it, or the key-stone of the arch of Presbyterianism, and of 
all representative government, remains. All this is too 
plain for argument. The action of this Synod, hereby pro- 
tested against, is purely suicidal. It is, therefore, of no 
effect with the living. 

The other point Presbytery did agree to report to Synod 
— the reception of my congregation. The question of 
boundary between it and the Ohio, had been much magni- 
fied by the opposition. This was professedly all the difficul- 
ty. They knew that I was even more attached to my con- 
gregation, from the wrongs which it had suffered, and would 
not be separated from it. If the line be made an insupera- 
ble barrier to the reception of the Church of the Covenan- 
ters, then its Pastor will not consent to be a member of 
this Presbytery. There is a technical interference with the 
regulation of Synod, in taking a congregation beyond the 
line. This all admit. Against passing this they will pro- 
test. They dare not face public sentiment, and raise any 
other objection, at that time and place. This will bring the 
matter up to Synod, and, under its mask, all that is desired 
can be forced into it. This, all subsequent events, up to 



36 



the final action of Synod upon it, demonstrate to have been 
their design. Since the proposal was made, of forming the 
connection, there was time enough for correspondence, and 
for consummating the conspiracy. Hence the queer way in 
which the reasons of protest saw the light, which led to 
their rejection by Presbytery, and the inaccurate record 
made by the clerk of the transactions of the special meet- 
ing in July ; all in correspondence with the course of the 
Banner of the Covenant : hence the manoeuvres for dividing 
the members of the Presbytery, upon matters connected 
with the protest; and the final ruse by which the complaint 
got upon our Minutes : hence the motion of Mr. Black for 
dishonoring the Certificate of his Presbytery, and depriving 
her of her rights, before the Synod was organized : and 
hence the subsequent self-destructive career of this body. 
By agreeing to report this, Presbytery, no doubt, desired to 
set aside the excuse for protest and appeal. It did not, 
however, stop them. The question of boundary was simple. 
It could have been easily settled. The fact of reporting it, 
falsifies the charge that she usurped the power of the Synod. 
But she must be dragged up as a criminal, ostensibly for 
this, which she has herself agreed to refer, in order to be put 
on trial, in defiance of all law and precedent, for doing her 
own business, in judging of her own. members, and in rela- 
tion to which there was no protest and appeal ; to receive a 
lusty bludgeoning, and an ignominious condemnation; and 
that, if it even should destroy the Synod, Mr. Wilson and 
his congregation may be forced out of it. She knew, too, 
that, if reason and justice prevailed, she had nothing to fear 
from reporting this. Exceptions to the rule defining the 
boundaries of Presbyteries, by Synods, are admitted by all 
Presbvterians, in circumstances requiring them. Without 
this, there might be much oppression under the name of 
Presbytery No doubt was entertained that, in the present 
case, such an arrangement ought to be made. She had her 
eye, too, upon precedents. Dr. McMaster had lived, for 
years, within the bounds of the Ohio Presbytery, while a 
member of the Western, and representing her in General 
Synod : as he is now of the former, but resides in the latter. 
The Philadelphia Presbytery had extended its line over 
Cincinnati, in 1846, by a certain appointment which it 



37 



made of an elder belonging to my Session. Places within 
its bounds, were always under the care of the old Northern 
Presbytery, as being more for edification. The present Rev. 
Dr. " X. Y.," under his own proper name, was received by the 
Philadelphia Presbytery, when I was a member,on a certificate 
from the Western Presbytery of the Eastern Subordinate Sy- 
nod, while residing within the bounds of the Southern Presby- 
tery of that Synod. The present Northern Presbytery ex- 
tended its boundaries, so as to take in Rev. Mr. Clarke, of 
Nova Scotia, and all the stations of the Eastern Synod of the 
Reformed Presbyterian Church, in Ireland, without consulting 
either Synod about the matter; and it was approved when 
reported to it, by the Synod of 1848. The Philadelphia 
Presbytery received, on the application of Session, Rev. Dr. 
Alexander McLeod and his congregation, while in the bounds 
of another Presbytery, although not certified by it, nor 
separated from it, and the General Synod ratified the deed. 
But it is denied that the two cases are parallel. They are, 
however, most perfectly so, as far as respects a Presbytery 
extending its line of boundary. This is all that is necessa- 
ry for the argument, and for what the case is adduced. The 
points of dissimilarity' — and it is admitted they are great — 
are all decidedly in our favor. 

For myself, however, I would have preferred, at the time, 
that the Presbytery had not agreed to report the reception 
of my congregation to the Synod. Not that I was afraid that 
Synod would express its judgment upon the question of 
boundary, for this it would do as a matter of course, when 
it came before it in the ordinary Presbyterial Report : but 
it seemed to me too humble a position for the Presbytery 
voluntarily to assume, so far was she from usurping the 
power of Synod ; and I knew that it would not induce the 
opponents to yield, or cease from the prosecution of their de- 
signs. The Pittsburgh Presbytery, even by the showing of 
their opponents, took nothing from the Ohio Presbytery. 
The latter had not, neither claimed to have, any jurisdiction 
over me, or my congregation. The certificate, upon which 
I had already been received into the former, clearly evinced 
that there was no controversy, nor anything left unfinished, 
between us. Her own testimony was, that no wrong could 
be done to her by the transaction. And again : upon the 



38 



other ground assumed by our opponents, namely, that we 
had left the Church altogether, there was no injury done to 
her, by our returning through the medium of the Pittsburgh 
Presbytery. Neither did she endorse, as is already evident, 
the elective affinity principle, in receiving us. The elective 
affinity principle ! Hull More "words!" 

And as to the allusion to society protecting crime and 
criminals, if it be intended by this to insinuate, that the 
Pittsburgh Presbytery did anything of this sort, in our re- 
ception ; — and to give this idea indirectly, is undoubtedly 
the design; — I have only to say, that it comes with a bad 
grace from the writer of the report, and that it is wholly 
destitute of application. For if we did not so strongly 
evince our desire, not to leave, but to remain in, the Church 
of our fathers, we would not be the target for such poisoned 
arrows. There are, it is admitted, criminals in our world, 
and sometimes they may be found standing even upon holy 
ground : and if the Church should whiteivash them, sooner 
or later, she must be wrecked by their influence. Such 
could not feel at home in communion with the opposite. 
These hints, dark to some, will be understood in that quarter. 
And as it respects myself, I have, to be sure, made some 
enemies, in the past, by the discharge of my duty, " who 
whetted their tongues like a sword, and bent their bows to 
shoot their arrows, even bitter words;" but "when they 
came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell." 
My readers will be apt to think, too, that "this race" is not 
yet quite extinguished, but still "compasses me about like 
bees." So it is. And I anticipate — and the very thought 
gives me pleasure — the performance of some farther service 
in the Church Militant, through the grace of my. only 
Master, Jesus Christ, which may provoke more of this 
species to "rise up against me." But, if all such only knew 
with what sweet peace, I am enabled to walk through the 
midst of their opposition, they would save themselves the 
trouble and expense of their insurrections. My soul, I trust, 
will never come into the secret of criminals ; nor mine honor 
be united to their assembly; while my main object is not to 
live, so as " to be seen of men." 

10. The complaint of Mr. Black against the Presbytery, 
for not admitting his reasons of protest and appeal to the 



39 



record, was the only thing, then, for which she was regularly 
before Synod. Competency could easily have issued this, 
to edification. Presbytery was right in refusing those rea- 
sons. Any one of the grounds upon whicch she acted, is 
sufficient to justify her course as wise, equitable, and expe- 
dient. I shall never blame a court against which I protest, 
for holding me strictly to the mutually acknowledged law in 
the case. By the universally acknowledged law of the Pres- 
byterian Church, a protest or complaint fails, if the reasons 
of the former are not left with the proper officer of the ju- 
dicatory, within ten days or two weeks after the closing of 
its sessions ; and the latter be not entered within the same 
time, after the decision complained of is made. Wiry this 
law? Most obviously, to secure justice to both parties. 
What would become of civil society, if a common writ 
might be executed, after the ten days to which it is lim- 
ited ? A protester against the decision of a Presbytery, for 
an alleged violation of law, is himself to be held by it to the 
law of the war which he has waged aganst it. It is not 
bound to extend to him grace, that he may the more effec- 
tually injure itself. And what were the grounds upon which 
it acted, in the rejection of his reasons ? He did not hand 
them to the Moderator, who, especially as he was at once 
protester and clerk, was the only proper officer, within the 
constitutional time : nor did Presbytery know anything of 
what was to be brought against it, until, three months after- 
wards, they were read in open court by Dr. Black, as the 
protester — he ceases to be the protester, and merely con- 
curs with Dr. Black, contrary to the fact, and the latter, who 
merely concurred with him, is made the protester ; and 
thus, by another ruse, they are professedly handed to him 
as the clerk ; and thus the assailants have them in their 
own hands during all the time already designated ; while he 
stays away from the next meeting of the Presbytery, and 
sends up its Minutes accommodated to all this — and he gives 
reasons diametrically opposite to those which he assigned at 
the time of entering his protest, and which he then most em- 
phatically dissclaimed. To this he had no right. He might 
give more : but he could not assign those which he then de- 
clared did not influence him. Even if the other things, as to 
time and order, had been correct, Presbytery had been justi- 



40 



fiable in absolutely rejecting them, on this ground alone. 
Both self-respect and self-preservation required it. He was 
veering round, as far as he could venture, with plausibility, to 
a new case. He was preparing for what he did at Synod — for 
striking down the Presbytery, with the hand of an assassin, 
through the aid of a factious and committed majority, before 
its organization. He would gain time, by the neglect of 
the order of the Church ; and he improved it for the advan- 
tage of himself and his allies. This was no blunder of ignor- 
ance. One of them, Dr. Black, knew well the order in the 
case. And what else can account for the change of the 
protester ? By this there would be the semblance of order 
in handing them to the clerk, while thus they would not see 
the light, nor be known to the party assailed, until its stated 
meeting. All this, too, was in perfect keeping with the 
course of the Banner of the Covenant, which gave such a 
general shock to the pious sensibilities of the Church, dur- 
ing those months. This was my conviction at the time. 
Subsequent events are sufficient to dispel all doubts, from 
the minds of the most incredulous. Presbytery was only too 
lenient with Mr. Black and his document : but he held out 
encouragement to the last that he would cease his prosecu- 
tion, and it was for peace and harmony. 

His complaint, moreover, was utterly inadmissible by 
Presbytery, according to the law which governs such cases : 
nor would the reasons of protest have been placed upon its 
records, but for the convenant which he publicly made on 
its floor, immediately to break it, that if this were done, in 
respect to his father's memory, as it was the last document 
he wrote, and the Presbytery should give a narrative of 
the facts, in its report to Synod, he would cease the. prose- 
cution. More than four months had elapsed after the re- 
jection of his reasons, before he gave notice that he would 
complain. The law requires that it be done within ten days 
or two weeks. It is true, he was not present when the de- 
cision was made. He had met with a severe bereavement, 
and had our cordial sympathy. But this formed no insu- 
perable barrier to his attendance, at the ordination of a 
brother, Rev. David Herron, to the Holy Ministry, in which 
service he had an important part allotted to him, and when 
he had reason to expect said decision would be made, as it 



41 



was business left unfinished at the last meeting. - There were 
members present who had left Pittsburgh the week after that 
melancholy occasion. Was it not the true reason of his ab- 
sence, that he would not commit himself by associating in 
that ordination with myself, lest he should have his hands 
tied from violence at Synod ? Did not the intelligent so 
understand it at the time ? Was it not the same reason, 
in addition to other peculiar ones, which kept him, more re- 
cently, from the ordination of another brother, the Rev. John 
Douglass, to the same Holy Office, in the city of Pitts- 
burgh. This is now as clear as noon-day. The complaint 
merited only rejection. This would at least have prevented 
him from the use of the bludgeon, before the Synod was 
organized, in the lawless resolution which he proposed and 
carried. His object was to decoy the Presbytery, from the 
rock on which it stood, and to get himself on vantage 
ground, that he might prevail against it. " The words of 
his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his 
heart," 

This excessive gentleness, in such circumstances, will not 
hurt the Presbytery in the end. As in Synod, so now, it 
stands— I speak here of my Co-Presbyters — upon a high 
moral eminence. It is enough for its members to have the 
consciousness of doing good, and that they would be above 
being, under any circumstances, in such a majority as that 
which, at the late meeting, most shamefully trampled upon 
the laws of the house of God, in order to injure them. Their 
condemnation, and the sham nullification of their action, 
founded upon such false premises, and in opposition to such 
weighty facts, are wholly destitute of the smallest particle of 
moral or ecclesiastical authority. 

III. The manner in which Synod proceeded against the 
Presbytery, throughout, and in which it finally adopted 
the resolutions condemnatory of its action; even if it had 
been, or could have been, constitutionally on trial before it, 
for the recognition of myself as one of its members, and 
thus a Minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, which 
was, in no sense, the case; and even if the charges had 
been regularly tabled against it, if they had been relevant 
to censure, and if they had all been properly substantiated; 
was so utterly irregular and disorderly as to vitiate and ren- 
6 



42 



der void the decisions, thus obtained, bearing upon us, as long 
as Presbyterianisni is a verity, and the observance of sound 
Parliamentary Rules shall be considered indispensable, in 
the transactions, and in order t > the validity of the acts, of 
deliberative assemblies. On this ground alone, we are, all 
and singular, entirely unscathed and unaffected thereby. 
For, 

1. It tore up its certificate of the delegation of its mem- 
bers to the Synod which was about to be organized, in the 
adoption of Mr. Black's resolution, which was seconded by 
Dr. Wylie, and thus deprived four of the delegates of their 
seats, by which alone they had an indisputable right to take 
part in its organization, and to sit in it when organized ; and 
that, too, by the officers of the old Synod, acting in con- 
cert with delegates to this Synod, of whom but part 
were yet ascertained, they voting in an unorganized con- 
dition, while the whole Pittsburgh Presbytery are refused, 
although not yet on trial, their right to judge or vote upon 
the question, and also to the prejudgment of a complaint 
not yet before it, but which was made to the next Synod, 
whose organization is not yet effected, of which it, synodi- 
cally, knows nothing, and which it has the means of being 
well ascertained from the information extensively communi- 
cated, out of doors, and in the possession of each person 
now on the floor, and voting for said resolution, is not against 
the regularity, or the validity, or the authenticity, of the 
certificate, nor against the delegates, as such, either in their 
individual or collective capacity, nor against the act by 
which they were delegated; but against another act of 
said Presbytery, which was passed upwards of six months 
before the delegates were unanimously appointed, or the 
certificate of their right to a seat in the next Synod was 
made out ! Most monstrous ! ! ! 

This sent down its full stream of deadly poison through 
all the proceedings of the new Synod, when organized; 
as well as fatally poisoned the organization itself. It 
made the whole organization and action of the body, both 
one-sided and irregular. The resolution was altogether un- 
lawful and disorderly : and being against the very life of 
Presbytery, in general, and the constitution of Synod, 
in particular, the Moderator was bound to have ruled it 



43 



out, and absolutely refused to put it to the house ;* and 
the mover merited, and ought to have received, the rebuke 
of Synod. Synod being the creature and representative of 
the Presbyteries, the stroke given by this act, was at once 
matricidal and suicidal. By it, in connection with the 
other disorders, irregularities and fallacies of the procedure 
against it, the Pittsburgh Presbytery, morally and eccle- 
siastically, had no trial. 

2. It is the commissions of the Presbyteries that make 
the legal roll of Synod, as a representative assembly ; and 
it is the business of the stated clerk, without vote, having 
found them to be genuine, to transcribe the names of those 
whom they certify to the Minutes of that Session to which 
they have been delegated. What has the representative 
assembly to do with the roll made by the Presbyteries, 
which it represents? or to say, in regard to the names 
which they have placed upon it? The following is our own 
rule in the case : 

" The members of the court shall be ascertained — the clerk calling 
for, and publickly reading their certificates of appointment, from their 
respective Presbyteries." f 

The General Assembly of the church of Scoland does not 
allow the commissions of her Presbyteries even to be read 
in court. The following shows her law in the case : 

." The commissions of the representatives are required to be lodged 
witb the clerk of the Assembly, the night before the first diet or meet- 
ing thereof, in order that the roll may be timously made up. Commis- 
sions not delivered then, must be put into his hands in the interval be- 
twixt the after diets, and not in presence of the assembly."]; 

This is the law also of the Free Church Assembly. Both 
General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church in our own 
country, proceed upon the same principle. The commis- 
sions of Presbyteries are never read in their meetings. 
They have a Committee on Elections, consisting of the clerks, 
to which they are delivered ; and the only point to be con- 

* Dr. Heron now, as the Moderator of the last Synod, occupied the chair. 
He must not have perceived the true character of the unprecedented motion. 
It was not easy to see it. He acted, however, after the nominal organization, 
an enlightened and honorable part. 

t Minutes of General Synod, page 214. 

i J udicatory Practice of the Church of Scotland. American Christian Ex- 
positor, Vol. I. page 374. 



44 



sidered by that committee, is whether they are genuine or 
not. This alone is in conformity with the reason and na- 
ture of the case. By the adoption, therefore, of this reso- 
lution, Synod mutilated and vitiated its own roll, which must 
be fairly made up before the officers can be constitutionally 
elected. The principle would have been precisely the same, 
if it had utterly destroyed it all. For it is a sound maxim, 
that "majus et minus non variant speciem ;" that is, "greater 
and less do not alter the kind." 

3. It made the Presbytery a party against itself. It 
forced it out of the house, as soon as this resolution was 
proposed, so that it could neither judge nor vote upon the 
question as to who its own members were. This was utterly 
tyrannical. For surely, if even the question could be pro- 
perly raised, and if it were properly before Synod, it had 
a right, at least as good as others, to judge and vote upon 
it. In nothing connected with this was it a party. It had 
not been yet sisted before the bar of Synod, to answer to the 
complaint about a totally different matter. The Synod at 
which it was to compear, had not yet been formed. 

4. It compelled it to become a party against itself, upon 
a case not before Synod at all, as has been already abun- 
dantly demonstrated. That was made the main one for 
which it was tried, and the main business of the whole ses- 
sion. And yet the report of the committee affirms, and 
Synod concur in it, for the bemisting of the minds of the 
public, that such a case is not before them, and that they 
do not touch it. And it was not, nor could it be, in the 
circumstances, before them. There was no such case, nor 
any grounds for it. The complaint does not touch my stand- 
ing in the Presbytery or the Church, And yet, in the 
face of all the forms and laws of the house 3 which we have 
mutually covenanted to uphold, and to walk by, and which 
are the palladium of the Ministry and their character, the 
Presbytery, as a whole, but more especially myself, are made 
the subjects of low and gross abuse for days ; the former is, 
for the moment, stricken down; and I am declared to be 
finally out of the Church. And as a farther means of ac- 
complishing such ends, constant appeals were made to the 
feelings and passions of membeis, — some of whom were 
near of kin to him, — about the gross insult offered by Pres- 



45 



bytery to the memory of Dr. Black, in not admitting to its 
records the last paper which he ever wrote; and calling upon 
them to sustain his appeal from its decision to receive me, 
notwithstanding the warning voice which he uttered against 
the criminal procedure. But it has been shown that there was 
no such appeal; and that for this the Presbytery were, by no 
means, before Synod. And if it would not be insulting to 
the understandings of those who have the evidence already 
given, to the contrary, in their possession, to add to it; I 
might rest the denial even upon the following facts and 
circumstances, which are also indubitable in their character: 
The hand of the present complainant entered, as clerk, 
my name, the same evening I was received, upon the roll 
of Presbytery. All the protesters deliberated and voted 
with me, at that very meeting. At the regular semi-an- 
nual meeting, on the next Fall, Dr. Black did the same; 
and perhaps the last voice he ever uttered in Presbytery 
was his votes for me, to be the alternate of the present com- 
plainant, to preach the sermon at the ordination of the Rev. 
David Hereon, and to deliver the charge to the Pastor when 
ordained : in which service he had been himself previously 
appointed to preside. It is due to him to record these facts. 
For his son and the Synod, under the pretext of vindicat- 
ing it, have greatly dishonored his memory. Mr. Black 
subsequently co-operated with me, most closely, and up to 
the time of starting for Synod. He wrote the certificate 
from our roll, containing my name as a Delegate, and then 
moved that it be torn up. Now, Dr. Black, it is well known, 
was no latitudinarian, but a most strenuous opponent of open 
or catholic communion. He would never, for any considera- 
tion, have thus acted with me, if he had not considered me 
a Minister of the Church, and a member of the Presbytery. 
And therefore the conclusion is irresistible, that there was 
not even the shadow of a protest and appeal in relation to 
my reception, but only touching the interference with the 
line of boundary. That there was a design to bring this 
question into Synod, by a conspiracy, however evident it be 
now, is quite another matter. The Presbytery was no party 
here. Could a question in regard to it have been fairly 
raised in Synod, it was entitled to judge and vote in its 
decision. And instead of the treatment which it has re- 



46 



ceived in this particular, and in that for which it was on 
trial, it ought, upon every principle, to have been excul- 
pated and sustained, as the case stood between the parties ; 
and its prosecutor sent home with male appellatum inscribed 
upon his document* 

5. It allowed the complainant who was a party, to intro- 
duce a resolution for maiming his antagonist, the Presby- 
tery, before the Synod to which the complaint was made, 
was organized, before it synodically knew whether there was 
any regular complaint or not, or whether, if there were, it 
was of such a nature as would require it to put said Presbytery 
on trial for it, or whether it was trifling and vexatious ; upon 
his own mere statement that he intended to bring a com- 
plaint in relation to an act totally disconnected with the 
delegation or its certificate ; and, at the same time, decided 
that the other party, the Presbytery, should have no vote 
in the decision of that question ! This was, beyond all de- 
scription, unfair, unlawful, and even ridiculous, under every 
aspect. It would have been so, had the Synod been regu- 
larly organized, and had the case been regularly before it, 
to allow the one party such an advantage over the other. 
The Presbytery not allowed to judge and vote upon such a 
question ; and its adversary permitted to make a motion 
regarding the anticipated case., for disabling it in advance, 
and for destroying the body before which it was to be 
brought ! Amazing fatuity and tyranny ! To make a 
motion, which is not allowed to a consultative or correspond- 
ing member, although he may speak upon it, is to exercise 

* The Presbytery, when it withdrew its certificate, proposed to Mr. Black 
that, if he would agree to withdraw his motion for laying on the table, they 
would not report the Elders until his complaint was decided. But he said it 
would make no difference. He would make it against myself alone. They, 
therefore, again reported the whole. This was going far in moderation, for 
the sake of peace. Said Elders had not been appointed for any special object, 
but solely because they were contiguous to the place of meeting ; and it is 
difficult for those at a distance to attend. 

The arrangement of the boundaries of Presbyteries by Synod, is merely for 
convenience and edification. It is wise and equitable, therefore, to change 
them, when these ends will thereby be better promoted. Adherence to the 
letter of any law at the expense of its spirit, is anything but sound policy or 
equity. The following is her own language upon the subject, in the act which 
she passed, May, 1816, in regard to the boundaries of Presbyteries : "Every 
arrangement of boundaries, should always be received as carried into effect 
with the most liberal construction, consistent with good order. The contiguity of 
ecclesiastical affairs, and facility of administration being more important consider- 
ations, than mere geographical residence." — Minutes of Synod, p. 78. 



47 



a ruling power quite as great, if not greater than to vote 
in relation to it. But here the one party is allowed to make 
a motion in his own favor, and against the other party, of 
such a deadly character; and that other party is prevented 
from casting a mere vote in its decision. The permission 
granted him to make this motion, was more for his cause, 
than if he had been allowed even a plurality of votes in its 
final decision. Without it, his complaint could not have 
been sustained : with it, the condemnation of the Presby- 
tery was certain. From that moment to the close of the pro- 
ceedings in regard to our Presbytery, it was a mere street-fight, 
where all the laws of war, of jurisprudence, and of society, 
were suspended, and trampled under foot. After that, any 
pigmy might stealthily place his poignard in the breast of a 
giant, with impunity. In the midst of all this, the Presby- 
tery — I speak only of my colleagues — was as calm as a 
morning of summer ; and stood like the rock in the ocean, 
while the angry waves dash themselves against it, to their 
own self-destruction. The Christians and citizens of Xenia, 
and of the surrounding country, who attended continually 
in crowds until the mock trial was closed, will long remember 
and corroborate this. 

6. It killed itself, by the adoption of this resolution.* 
Thereby it destroyed the principle, in its own case, as a del- 
egated body, namely, a just representation of the Presby- 
teries, of which the genuine Presbyterial certificate is the 
only, and the most incontestable evidence, upon which it 
was itself founded. Even if the Synod to which these cer- 
tificates were sent, had been regularly organized, it would 
have had no right, as a representative body, to make its own 

* The Presbyteries may re-organize it; but I hazard nothing in saying, that, 
in the line of its present officers, it will never pass an act possessing the least 
validity. The first lawfully constituted Synod will rescind the deeds of this 
body. 

In the Synod of 1 831, a motion was made to abandon the delegated system. 
Drs. Alexander McLeod and Black solemnly warned the members that the 
adoption of the resolution, or any modification by itself, would destroy it as 
a representative body, and render it incompetent to do valid business, until it 
would be re-organized by the Presbvteries. The subject was thus abandoned. 

In the Synod of 1842, the same s r ubject was brought forward. And as its 
members unanimously agreed that they were incompetent to change or modify 
their own constitution, it was resolved that the Presbyteries should meet in 
Convention, immediately preceding the time and place of the next Synod, that 
they might take order in the premises. They so met, May, 1843, in the city 
of Pittsburgh. The Convention resolved to continue the representative Synod. 
Thus it remained up till this meeting. 



48 



members, nor to unmake those who had been regularly 
commissioned to it by the Presbyteries. This was in perfect 
keeping with the new Presbyterianism of the Rev. Dr. " X. 
Y.," that a Minister cannot get into a Presbytery, except 
through the medium of the General Synod, composed as it 
is of delegates from the Presbyteries ! Admit this quack- 
ery as regular in theory, and sound in practice, and the 
body ecclesiastical must soon, in carrying it out, be inevi- 
tably destroyed. The heart that could prompt it, and the 
head that could conceive and approve it, may be easily 
measured by all Republicans and Presbyterians ; and they 
are certainly anything but enviable. How did the Rev. 
Gavin McMillan and Ebenezer Cooper, who had really left 
her, and published their circular against her, get into the 
General Synod again, after remaining out from 1833 to 
1839, but through the medium of the re-organized Ohio 
Presbytery, which had become defunct by their departure ? 
And did not we, as a Synod, receive them, without a word of 
reflection or censure, with open arms ? Let the States of our 
Union, in their Legislatures, or in the Congress in which 
they are represented, thus tear up the certificates of the 
representatives elected by the Counties to sit in the former, 
and by the Congressional Districts to sit in the latter, for 
factious purposes, and thus force an organization ; and no 
intelligent man can doubt that, if sustained in this course, 
by the citizens, the government would be revolutionized, or 
that, in the meantime, their own constitutional existence 
would be destroyed. The principle upon which a part of 
the certificate of the Pittsburgh Presbytery was laid on the 
table, was such, even if the decision, in the steps by which 
it was reached, had been, in every respect, regular, as to 
destroy the right of every delegate on the floor — the offi- 
cers of the last Synod, and all others — to a seat in the 
Synod about to be organized. This done, they had no 
right, upon their own principle, even if thereby they had 
not annihilated the principle of their very existence, in its 
application to themselves, to organize, nor to act* Against 

* " Christ spake this parable against those who were resolved not to own 
his authority, though the evidence of it was ever so full and convincing ; and 
it comes very seasonably to show, that by questioning his authority, they for- 
feited their own. Their disowning of the Lord of their vineyard, was a de- 
feasance of their lease of the vineyard, and a giving up all their title." Mat- 
thew Henry, on Luke xx. 9 — 19. 



49 



this, so committed to, and bent upon wrong, were they, 
they tyrannically refused from me a single note of warning. 
The Lord left them to commit suicide. They had pro- 
voked his Majesty long enough. " The Lord God shall slay 
thee, and call his servants by another name." All this 
quackery, with its awful results, which were certainly not 
desired by us, serves, as a foil in a ring, to illustrate and 
enhance sound Presbyterianism ; with the happy conse- 
quences to the Church of the application of its genuine 
principles and spirit. 

7. The officers of the last Synod not only unmade four 
Delegates to this Synod, by which its organization was 
effected in an unlawful manner ; but it, when so organized, 
made a Delegate, Rev. H. McMillan, to sit in itself! In 
this it was true to its pedigree, as the child is like its mo- 
ther. For the power of unmaking, involves the power of 
making. The one is precisely commensurate with the other. 
This also was done not only without, but contrary to the 
expressed will of a Presbytery. For the Ohio Presbytery 
had bound him, by making him alternate to any one of 
its other members, who were his principals, not to sit as 
a constituent member, except one of them should be ab- 
sent : and they were all present throughout the session. 
Against this enormity, even one of themselves, the Rev. J. 
McMaster, protested ; although he had zealously advocated, 
and voted for the exercise of the same power, in laying a 
part of our certificate on the table, to serve a purpose. This, 
however, gave Mr. McMillan the opportunity to exer- 
cise a hallowed influence, if he had only been so directed 
by the Spirit of God. But the deed was radically unsound, 
and would itself have vitiated the body, and all its subse- 
quent proceedings. One vote might, as it has done, in the 
past, instrumentally decide the destiny of a Church or a 
Nation. 

8. It allowed the members of the Board of Missions to 
judge upon the complaint, and upon all other matters which, 
in defiance of law and order, were dragged in under it. The 
Banner of the Covenant is their accredited organ. Its 
course, in relation to the Presbytery and myself, is well 
known. By not condemning that unworthy course, even if 
they did not formally approve of it, they had prejudged, as 

7 



50 



a Board, all these matters. Of this they gave evidence, by 
their vote to disable the Presbytery before the Synod was 
organized. A large portion of the number and influence of 
the Synod, was connected with the Board. The whole of 
the Committee of Discipline belonged to it, when it first 
published the slander, March, 1848, that I was in no sense 
in connection with the Reformed Presbyterian Church. To 
this there were honorable individual exceptions, in that 
Board. Of those present, and sitting in judgment, Mr. 
George H. Stuart, of Philadelphia, merits to be excepted. 
I do so with pleasure. Coming late into Synod, and obliged 
to depart before the case was issued, he threw his weighty 
influence against the course which was pursued and adopted, 
as a Christian and a gentleman. Was it their connection 
with this Board that induced Dr. and Mr. Black to become 
protesters ? 

9. It tried and condemned the Presbytery by rules, 
which it made for the occasion. These were wholly desti- 
tute of authority : 1. Because they were neither overtured 
to the Presbyteries, nor approved by a majority of them ; 
both of which were indispensably requisite, before they could 
be constitutionally adopted : and 2. Because, even if they 
had been legally adopted, and were of general authority, 
they could be of no authority whatsoever, being made ex 
post facto, in this particular case. 

10. It refused me the right to speak, even a word, in de- 
fence of my Presbytery, although regularly commissioned 
to represent it, and called upon by its members, at the time, 
to rise and take part in the defence. Now, supposing it to 
have been sincere in its allegations, — to say nothing of the 
great and sbameful injustice of this, — or in its course of 
procedure, it was evident that it stood in great need of light, 
which, from known circumstances, I had special facilities for 
imparting ; and it ought to have desired and even asked 
some information or explanation from me, had I not been 
a delegate, in relation to several important matters. Be- 
sides, it need not have been afraid, for my intentions were 
altogether pacific, and anything I should have said, would 
have been of a healing and fraternal character. But no ; I 
must not, either on behalf of my Presbytery or myself, 
speak a word. This must, by any means, be prevented, or 



51 



the whole plot will be exploded. Hence, when I arose, my 
right was not only peremptorily refused, bat members, in 
all quarters of the house, uttered sounds, and made gestures, 
as if they had been seized with a sudden panic. I could, 
however, have spoken, for hours, notwithstanding ; and I 
felt more than half inclined to do it. The large audience, 
too, composed of Christians of various denominations, and 
of respectable citizens, were determined that I should speak, 
if I insisted upon my right to be heard. But I could not 
bear the idea of having such a scene enacted in any body 
calling itself a court of Christ ; and therefore, having dis- 
charged my duty in proposing it, determining to leave it to go 
on in its infatuated course, with painful emotions, on its own 
account, I took my seat. Even an Agrippa felt bound to 
say, "Paul, thou art permitted to speak for thyself." For 
the natural conscience in a Pagan's bosom revolts at the 
gag-law. 

11. It endeavored to confuse and put down some of its 
own members, when they were giving their views in a judi- 
cial capacity ; and were making calm and judicious argu- 
ments against the adoption of the report of the committee, 
and adducing authentic precedents to show that consis- 
tency required of it, the adoption of a different course : as 
in the cases of Rev. M. Harshaw, and Mr. Samuel Little, 
Ruling Elder. It could not bear the light, because its deeds 
were, and were to be, evil. The sons of light, and truth, 
and equity, and peace, must be put down ; even although 
there be a willing and fixed majority already manufactured 
for the perpetration of these deeds of darkness. 

12. ' It refused Dr. Heron the right to present a substi- 
tute for the report, which he proposed to do when it was 
read by the committee ; and the Moderator decided that it 
was then out of order, but that he should have leave to offer 
it when the parties had been heard, and the members of 
Synod had given their opinions upon it, before taking the 
question. When, however, the opinions were all given, and 
the Dr. rose to read and move his substitute, objections 
were raised, and the good Moderator reversed his decision : 
telling him that the proper time to introduce said substitute 
would be after the final vote was.taked upon the report ! A 
substitute not in order, until that for which it was a substi- 



52 



tute had been adopted ! A substitute then in order ! 0 
march of mind ! 0 Nineteenth Century ! 0 Rev. Dr. 
" X. Y.," you are certainly either very far before or behind 
your age ! These additional absurdities may be accounted 
for by the fact, that they had discovered that the substitute 
met the case in a fair manner, and that if it were presented, 
it would be adopted, to the blasting of their designs ; as 
there were those of the Synod who had become tired and 
ashamed of the black concern. 

13. It finally decided nothing constitutionally by the 
votes taken in relation to the Pittsburgh Presbytery, or the 
other irrelevant matters which it had irregularly introduced, 
in connection with it. The sole question now before it, and 
upon which the parties and the Synod had spoken, was the 
resolution to adopt the report of the committee. No other 
could be legally introduced or acted upon, until this had 
been disposed of, either by laying it upon the table, or by 
its indefinite postponement, or by its adoption or rejection. 
The report, however, it was understood, could not, as a 
whole, now be adopted : all were ashamed of it : if anything 
farther were said about its adoption, matters might take a 
new turn, and thus the whole game be spoiled : its writer 
himself, as I have already stated, after it had been brought 
into utter discredit by the defence, had moved that the 
whole of it, except the resolutions at its close, which were 
professedly founded upon its statements and reasonings, 
should be laid on the table ; but the Presbytery objecting, 
upon the ground that the Church ought to see the basis of 
said resolutions, and the manner in which such conclusions 
were reached, the original motion was allowed to remain 
in this its present form: and therefore it must now be 
quietly and hastily jumped over. Instead, therefore, of 
taking a vote upon it at this stage, or at all, the clerk, with 
the most indecent haste, while Dr. Heron was on the floor 
to propose his substitute, commenced calling the roll; and 
the Moderator decided, in answer to cries from all parts of 
the house, " Moderator, what are we voting for ? How much 
does this comprehend ? " that the question now before the 
house was, " sustain or not sustain the complaint of Mr. 
Black ! " With regard to the other inquiry, however, as to 
how much it comprehended, the worthy Moderator, who 



53 



would never do this business for himself, and whose fault is 
that he is not his own in such cases, but the too pliable in- 
strument of his friends and relations, knows not himself. 
And the clerks withhold from him the usual aid of their 
prompting and dictation : for they know that the less that 
is said about what they are now doing, it will be the better ; 
and that in skating over thin ice, the safety is in speed. He 

is silent and puzzled. The clerk persists. " Mr. , how 

do you vote ? Yes or No ? " " Well, Yes." Thus, it is 
sustained by a majority of such affirmative responses. 

Next came the resolutions of the report. The first is 
passed without difficulty, because it had been substantially 
adopted already in sustaining the complaint ; and the clerk 
entered the minute rather vauntingly upon the record, that 
it "was adopted without a count." This, however, was an- 
other noticeable piece of disorder, and has no small influence 
in vitiating the action upon the Rev. A. W. Black's papers. 
For, by the universal rule of order, when a question is once 
decided, it cannot be taken up again by the deliberative 
body, whether civil or ecclesiastical, without a regular motion 
to reconsider it : and a motion for its reconsideration cannot 
be admitted at the same session at which it was decided, 
except with the consent of two-thirds of the members. So 
that, if this resolution was adopted without a count ; it was, 
for the same reason, that it so passed, without effect. 
This rare disorder was very perplexing and confusing to 
members. 

The second resolution it is now moved to adopt. The 
response from all parts of the house again, is, with growing 
emphasis, " Moderator, what are we voting for ? How far 
does this go?" He makes no reply. The clerk proceeds with 
the call of the roll. There is again found a majority of Ayes. 

Last of all, although with them not the least, it is 
moved to adopt the third resolution, containing the Beau- 
tiful Parenthesis, and the veracious asseverations: which 
resolution it was not necessary to pass at all, except upon 
the ground that they well knew, as was really the case, that 
the protest and appeal and complaint did not touch my stand- 
ing in the Church or the Presbytery ; but related exclusively 
to the question of boundary. For if it had been otherwise, 
and if their convictions had been otherwise, the sustaining 



54 



of these had already done the business; and the Paren- 
thesis, and the truthful and grammatical affirmations which 
it contains, were altogether superfluous. The question, how- 
ever, upon it is put. The response, as the clerk goes on 
with the roll, is frequently heard, from all quarters of the 
house, with strong emphasis, "Moderator, what are we voting 
for? What does this mean? What will be the effect of 
the adoption of this ?" He stands, but speaks not. The 
clerk proceeds. And it is soon discovered that there is a 
majority of Ayes, even for the Parenthesis of Excommuni- 
cation — the bad grammar of leave for leaves, and of do for 
does, inasmuch as the pronoun this confines the noun Synod, 
in both instances, to the singular number, and with it the 
verb must agree, as the mere schoolboy is taught — and the 
statement, notwithstanding all the premises, " Him this Sy- 
nod do not touch" — and all its contents !!! — Infandum! Thus 
the scene closes. Very few knew what they were doing. 
Apart, therefore, from all the other considerations, and had 
all besides been right, their manner of taking the final votes 
divested the decisions of validity. 

While these pretty deeds were being done, the voice of 
Dr. McMaster, quite characteristically, was heard encour- 
aging them to go on with the exterminating process, and 
calling upon them to a remember that this Church was or- 
ganized, not for the sake of numbers, but for making a 
sound and high exhibition of ecclesiastical order, and of the 
moral order of society, before the other Churches and the 
world !" 

Against these proceedings and decisions, both as to their 
matter and manner, a virtuous minority did all within its 
power: and various dissents and protests were entered be- 
fore the body. But those who are not willing that they 
should administer the affairs of the Church in this way, 
they stigmatize as troublesome men. "Art thou he that 
trouble th Israel? I have not troubled Israel; but thou 
and thy father's house." 

And now these are their acts. They speak for them- 
selves. Is this all they can do ? Is this all they know 
or care about the Church ? Is this the way they would 
govern her ? Let their work praise them in the gate. How- 
ever it may be with the other, one party here feels, con- 



55 



trary to their aims, benefited and honored. The mountain, 
long laboring, has at last brought forth its mouse, this Ex- 
communicating Parenthesis, ("out of the communion of 
the Reformed Presbyterian Church,") which they had to add, 
because they knew that their condemnation of the Pres- 
bytery did not affect the standing of " the Rev. William 
Wilson," as a Minister of the Church ; and that " he had 
placed himself," before his connection with the Presbytery 
of Pittsburgh, where his Certificate places him, in her com- 
munion ; in order to issue the case of the Rev. Dr. " X. Y." 
And a Parenthesis it is, as well as the body, as such, which 
significantly and appropriately framed it, as it appears upon 
its own fragmentary and one-sided Minutes, in the real 
history of the Reformed Presbyterian Church ; and in the 
empire — I speak not of individuals in this body, nor of the 
genuine General Synod — of truth, love, holiness and righte- 
ousness, a freeman of which, he would humbly trust, through 
the abounding and reigning grace of God, he is ; and from 
which no man, nor Devil, nor Synagogue, can cast him out. 
For this they must face Posterity, and the Bar of the In- 
finite and Supreme Justice. " Father, forgive them I" This 
action can hurt no man without his own consent— till he 
submits to it. And in the meantime, every one who is 
worthy of a place on the catalogue of freemen, will tell 
them to rescind these deeds, with the least possible delay, 
or to get them speedily hence. They have both made and 
adopted, and denied the Parenthesis, with the same breath. 
" Him this Synod do not touch !" It was this most striking 
feature of the whole report — its redundance of a certain 
nameless quality — that made the Rev. George Scott tell 
them, in the defence, " to say the least of it, it is very 
economical of truth." 

IV. Its refusal to permit me to read my Protest, and to 
have it placed among its archives. This I entered before 
the passage of the resolution, by which it destroyed its 
capacity to organize, or to transact lawful business ; and the 
Moderator of the preceding Synod, Dr. Heron, decided that 
I had the right to protest, and to have my reasons received : 
telling, at the same time, Dr. McMaster and the clerk, who 
objected, that they could appeal from the decision to the 
house, if they saw fit. They did not, however, appeal. 



56 



Thus they acquiesced in his decision. The following is the 
testimony of the Rev. Dr. Heron to these facts : 

"I hereby state, as my distinct recollection, that while the motion 
to lay on the table a part of the Certificate of Delegation of the Pres- 
bytery of Pittsburgh, was under consideration, the Rev. William 
Wilson made an attempt to speak, but was not permitted. Against 
the refusal Mr. Wilson claimed the right to protest ; as well as against 
sustaining the resolution then before the house, and whatever evil 
might grow out of it. As Moderator I decided that he had a right to 
protest, as an aggrieved party. From this decision no appeal was 
taken. Andrew Heron." 

July 8, 1850. 

In accordance with this, and to carry out a form, I pro- 
posed, after they had done with the Presbytery, to read it : 
not that I then recognized it as the General Synod of the 
Reformed Presbyterian Church, against whose proposal to 
commit suicide I had entered it, as well as against all that 
would grow out of it, and its denial of my right to warn 
it from rushing headlong over the precipice before it. The 
clerk objected to my reading it, and denied the decision of 
the former Moderator, and that there was anything of it on 
the Minutes. Inasmuch as I knew him, this denial did not, 
in the least, surprise me. The Moderator was then, of course, 
prepared to reverse the decision of his predecessor ; which 
he accordingly did. As, however, by the adoption of the 
resolution against which I protested, it had destroyed the 
Synod, and was now altogether another concern ; I felt that 
it was the more consistent and excusable, in refusing to be 
bound by a decision which had been made in that body while 
it existed, on that account. But in this it evinced the same 
lawless and tyrannical spirit, as in its other proceedings. 
And as it was a legitimate result of the self-destroying 
resolution, I hereby also protest against it. 

CONCLUSION. 
With a bleeding heart, God is my witness, not for my- 
self, but for the Church, I write this Protest. My spirit 
is astonished, perplexed and overwhelmed at her long deso- 
lations, and the continued dark dispensations toward her of 
her Head. My relief is in knowing, that behind these 
clouds of darkness is the Sun of Righteousness in all his 
glory. He rests in his love to her. He will cause light to 



57 



arise out of the darkness. His word faileth never, any more 
than his mercy. All the glorious things which he hath 
spoken of her, he will fulfill. The hope of this is our sheet- 
anchor. The course which I have reviewed, in part, and 
with truth and candor, seems to myself almost too bad to 
dignify with a protest. It will, doubtless, be so considered 
by others. Were it not for the public interests involved, it 
should not have this honor. The men employed in it have 
my forgiveness and my love ; while I utterly disapprove, 
condemn, loathe, reprobate and reject their deeds. To have 
occasion to write in their praise, would be infinitely more 
congenial to every feeling of my heart. I am seeking to 
find out some excuse for their infatuated conduct, which, to 
any extent, might reconcile it with their places and their 
professions. I am desirous to hope that they, under some 
strong temptation, acted contrary to their better principles 
and characters. If there be not ground for indulging this, 
what must be the consequences ? God alone trieth the 
hearts. It is with the conduct we have to do. Let it be 
impartially judged. And, I entertain no doubt, the intelli- 
gent and unprejudiced will say, as I most firmly believe, 
leaving myself out of the question altogether, and esti- 
mating it as an impartial spectator, that the reckless, fla- 
grant and unblushing outrages upon all law, common sense, 
and common decency, and utter disregard of their dictates 
and requisitions, to say nothing of the claims of the brother- 
ly covenant, which were perpetrated by this assembly of 
professedly, and, I trust, really, Christian men, convened in 
the name of Christ, opening and closing each session by 
prayer for Divine light and guidance, — which was very cold 
and languid indeed, for what they were doing would not 
allow it to be otherwise ; — and all for striking down such a 
Presbytery, and for such an offence, and to deprive a Minis- 
ter of his ecclesiastical status, together with his congre- 
gation, without charge, without trial, and without liberty to 
exercise the right of speech, by mere force, in opposition to 
right, to their own self-destruction, who has always been 
their friend, who asked from them no favors, but only 
wished to be let alone in the discharge of the duties of his 
place and his station, against whom they dare not, and 
could not table a single regular charge, — how does their 
8 



58 



conduct proclaim, that they would do it, if it were at all in 
their power ? — in the name of that God who loves justice, 
and who "hates putting away ;" has not been surpassed, if at 
all equaled, or approximated, in its kind, since the crucifix- 
ion. Even that had more of the form of law and justice, 
There the gag-law, at least, was not imposed.* 

What is the cause of this ? No doubt sin, with which 
we are all deeply chargeable, is at the bottom of it. But, I 
verily believe, that God in it is rebuking the sin of in- 
dulging in the schismatic spirit ; especially when he allowed 
us such excellent opportunities for healing the breaches of 
several portions of the Reformed Church ; and that he is 
allowing these brethren, who, by becoming protesters, in 
1845, when the Basis of Union was overtured, stirred up 
old prejudices all around against it 3 so to vex and waste 
his heritage, as that the eyes of men may be opened to 
see, and their hearts be inclined to remove, one of the 
greatest causes of the Lord's controversy with the Church 
-—Sectarianism. If so, then thrice welcome be to all this. 
If the land of promise be in prospect, and we have faith in 
God that he will conduct us thither, we will cheerfully enter 
the Red Sea of persecution, and he will guide us in safety 
through it, in order that we may go up and possess it. 

If that be our object, and if it were so from the first, during 
those years of unwonted peace and prosperity at home, and 
of the cheering progress of the cause of ecclesiastical union, 
in "the Convention of Reformed Churches," then we are 
bound patiently to bear, and need not be dismayed at, 
the swellings and the tumults; the hard speeches; the rev- 
olutionary movements; the interference in our congrega- 
tions, for schismatical purposes, which, in one, at least, just 
but emerging out of its previous, perpetual disorders, deso- 
lations, and spiritual torpidity, was but too easily success- 
ful; the suspension of all law and order, when discipline 
was to be inflicted upon those whom they had thus stirred 

* This was not done by the Reformed Presbyterian Church. For, besides 
that this body, as constituted, was not the General Synod, there were fourteen 
Ministers and twenty-two Ruling Elders not in it, who had either been dele- 
gated, or who had a right to be delegated to it — all but as many as the actors 
in these scenes, even when a portion of the Pittsburgh Presbytery was al- 
lowed to be in the house. "Exwyism" is not Reformed Presbyterian ism, any 
more than the " X. Y." Synod of Xenia is its exponent or its representative. 



59 



up ; the vindictive and unfo-Ygiving spirit ; the sinful fears 
and precautions in relation to the agitation of the subject 
of union again in this Synod ;* the exterminating war 
waged against brethren who would not bend, like the wil- 
low, before the influence which they had put forth ; and the 
scenes of this the last act in the drama ; which have existed 
from the moment, they were honorably foiled, by sending 
down said Overture, — who had been accustomed to rule, and 
whose maxim seems to be, u Rule or Ruin:" we shall not 
turn back, but, with strong hearts, and accelerated force, 
press forward to its realization. The United Presbyterian 
Church, first, and, after that, the Church, shall yet bless 
and beautify the world.f 

0 that, while many act a similar part to that of the ten un- 
believing spies, sent out by Moses to explore the good land 
beyond the Jordan, many Joshuas and Calebs were raised 
up, to utter the notes of an all-inspiriting and an all-con- 
quering faith, at this crisis of the moral world, so big with 
great events, and so travailing in pain to bring forth ; to 
arouse us to the performance of exploits, with our hearts 
encouraged, and our hands strengthened in God, for se- 
curing the bright prospect which he has placed before the 
Church : " Let us go up at once and possess it ; for we are 

WELL ABLE." 

WILLIAM WILSON. 

Cincinnati, June 11, 1850. 

* See the notice of the Sermon, entitled, " The Church, and the New Age/' 
m the Banner of the Covenant, May, 1850. 

f Much injustice is done to me by the whisper, assiduously circulated, that I 
wished to force a union of the Reformed Churches. I knew that it could not 
be forced. I only sought that the subject should receive fair and Christian 
treatment. 



60 



POSTSCRIPT. 



1. Nothing but an imperious sense of duty would have induced me to write and pub- 
lish the above Protest. Its readers will say, from a knowledge of my past course, 
that 1 would be more at home in dwelling upon the love of the brethren, and in advo- 
cating the unity of the Church. My hand, however, providentially found it to do: 
and 1 have done k- it heartily, as to the Lord." 

2. In writing it I have studiously avoided all unnecessary personalities ; and now 
feel that it is much enervated by abstinence from those which truih and propriety 
would have warranted. It is true« I have "given the trumpet a certain sound" I 
have .-poken truly and plainly. If any think I am too severe, let them look at my sub- 
ject! Should anything appear in reply, if at all above contempt, I shall give it due at- 
tention. To what 1 write I shall append my own name, and stab no man in the dark. 
One who has taken no notice of the slanderous nibbling of anonymous writers, tor 
upwards of tlwoc years and a half, in the little Banner of the Covenant, and who in- 
tended to perform an act of amnesty for the past in taking his place in Synod, as a 
delegate from his Presbytery, and to whom it is now turned for a testimony, having 
now been compelled to buckle on his armor, and to turn upon his pursuers ; it may be 
expected, will be slow to desist from the pursuit or to put off" his armor. As Mar- 
tix Luther threw his inkstand at the Devil, in the cattle of Warburg, as a type of 
what the Press would do to his kingdom; so I shall avail myself oi its ungagged 
power for the exposure and removal of this great scandal, fiitherto, my motto has 
been, Principles, not men. 1 ' Hereafter, it my opponents take that course, my motto 
shall be, u Principles, and men." 1 Let mine adversaries bewake ! I shall " spare uo 
arrows." 

3. From the past course of the Banner of the Covenant, neither the public nor 1 
will expect any Christian candor or courtesy from it. toward me. Can any one tell 
of what Covenant this is the Banner? That it is the Banner of this conspir acy, is a 
fact indubitable. Of its general merits, I shall say nothing at present, in its repeated 
and unprovoked essays and notices concerning myself, it has not been generally 
very abusive, but always exceedingly insinualive. With apparent mildness and 
saintliness, its editors have published misstatements about me, over sea and land, 
which, if true, and where the facts are not known, would inflict a greater injury than if 
they had exhausted upon me the whole vocabulary of billingsgate. But lmustTefer 
my readers to the unanswered and unanswerable Letter addressed by Mr. William 
Stewart Bates to its editors, for farther light upon matters embraced in my i'ro- 
TESi; and for a specimen of the facility and the success with which he disposes of them, 
and X- Y.'' into the bargain. He deals mortal blows to " Exwyism." They may 
hear from him again. 

4. Before this is through the press,what are called the Minutes of the Synod at Xenia, 
have arrived. The clerk is at his old trade of making minutes for the body. Take 
the following specimens, bearing upon the single case of the Pittsburgh Presbytery: 
He publishes the Eiders whose names were laid on the table, as those connected with 
me; although he promised to correct that phraseology, and to insert their names, ac- 
cording to Mr. Black's resolution, when his attention was called to the error upon 
the first reading ol the minutes. As Presbyterial Delegates to Synod, they had no 
more connection with me than with himself. Then, Mr. Samuel Mitchell's name 
appears as alternate to Mr. William Taylor. But the resolution of our Presbytery- 
was, that the alternates should be appointed indiscriminately to the principals, to act 
as principals in their absence, until our number should be complete; and it would not 
have been complete, had they all been admitted to a seat. He was, therefore, denied 
his seat, as a Delegate, as well as the others. Farther: he, again and again, makes 
the minute, most palpably contrary to the fact, that the complaint of Rev Mr. Black 
was against my reception by the Presbytery of \ ittsburgh. And still farther: he has 
suppressed every word in the case of the Presbytery, in its favor. AH is on one side., 
and against it. Its answer to the reasons of protect and appeal, is not given: for it 
would have removed all deception upon the subject. And it is not. to appear in the 
future: for it cannot be found. It went with the other papers to the Committee on 
Discipline, and they referred to it in their report. They were bound to return it, He 
it deeply responsible for the papers of Synod. This fact speaks volumes. Besides., 
the stringent reasons of Dissent from the self-destroying resolution, written by 
the Rev. Thomas C. Guthrie, and read before the adjournment, as signed by himself 
and others, — how many I cannot now sav, — do not appear, &c, &c. But half the 
truth is given, in connection with posi ive misrepresentations affecting the party 

whose defence is suppressed. Now half the truth, is a whole . Any reader can 

fill the blank. Will the Lord's People tolerate this deception? 

5. I have no reference whatsoever to the standing in the civil commonwealth, nor as 
its citizen or citizens, of any individual or individuals mentioned, with disapproba- 
tion, in any part of the foregoing Protest, or of this Postscript. I speak of them, 
exclusively, as they are connected with our ecclesiastical affairs; and as thev are the 
professed subjects of our ecclesiastical laws. W. W 

Cincinnati, July 25, 1850. 





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